In a thrilling contest, Wang Frost scored four goals on her own, but was unable to turn the game around.
Our fans jokingly say that the journey of the national football team is always accompanied by the label of "the opening battle, the battle of life and death, the battle of honor". Now, our women's soccer team is experiencing a similar drama.
In the second round of the group stage on July 24, our women's soccer team drew 4-4 with Zambia, gaining only one point in the two matches. In the final round of the face of the powerful Dutch team, the group out of the hope has become extremely slim ......
Looking back at the first two matches, the performance of our women's soccer team in the defensive end can be described as disastrous. Whether facing the powerful Brazilian team or the Zambian team with outstanding individual ability, the team was almost at a loss.
From the initial selection of the list of controversial, to the difficulties of the Olympic Games, the outside world can not help but ask - China's women's soccer team does need to train new people, but the Olympic Games "tuition" approach is really appropriate?
Jia Xiuquan, head coach of our women's soccer team.
From chasing goal difference to barely holding on to a draw
In Group F, where our women's soccer team is located, the Zambian women's soccer team is relatively weak. This team is a newcomer to the Olympics for the first time, and its world ranking of 104 is the lowest among the women's soccer teams in this Olympics.
Thus, in pre-match speculation, the game against Zambia was a must-win three points for our women's soccer team - the
Not only that, the team will have to fight for more goal difference in order to be in a favorable position in the race for a place in the group.
However, the reality gave all Chinese fans a resounding slap in the face.
Despite the fact that our women's soccer team led 3-1 at one point in the first half, the team's defensive problems put paid to the momentum, so much so that the Zambian women's soccer team rallied to make it 4-3 in the 67th minute ......
If it wasn't for Wang Frost's last-minute penalty kick that saved the team, China's women's soccer team would have almost failed to get even a draw, not to mention all three points. But even this draw was disastrous.
According to the system of the Olympic Games, in the three groups, the top two teams and the two teams with the best results can get the eighth place. Now, after the second round of group matches, China's women's soccer team, Japan's women's soccer team and Australia's women's soccer team are the third in their respective groups, of which Australia's women's soccer team won 1 and accumulated 3 points, and China's women's soccer team and Japan's women's soccer team both drew 1 and lost 1 and only had 1 point.
However, in the final round of the group stage, Japan's women's soccer team is up against the weaker Chilean women's soccer team, while our women's soccer team is up against the 2019 World Cup runners-up, the Netherlands women's soccer team.
In other words, although our women's soccer team has not been officially declared "dead", it is already in the embarrassing situation of only a theoretical possibility to get out of the game.
Wang Frost looked very forlorn.
Defense problems, no excuses anywhere
The problem of our women's soccer defense has actually been exposed from the first match against Brazilian women's soccer team. It is just that due to the strong strength of the opponent, the loss of our women's soccer team is not so surprising.
But against the Zambian women's soccer team, whose strength is not that high, and still managed to concede four goals in a single game, there is no excuse for our women's soccer team's defensive problems.
Not only that, but after conceding four goals, our women's soccer team paid an even bigger price:
In the 85th minute, in order to stop the counterattack of the Zambian women's soccer team, Li Qingtong dragged down the opponent's striker and was sentenced to a direct red card, otherwise our women's soccer team will face a greater threat to the goal of .......
And it was Zambian women's soccer's star scorer Banda who was dragged down by Li Qingtong. Li Ching-Tong was shown a red card.
The powerful striker joined our Women's Super League last year, playing for Shanghai Women's Football Team, and won the league's top scorer last season, and was considered to be a key target for our women's football team to focus on before the tournament.
As a result, she scored a hat-trick in the match, and together with Wang Frost, who completed the big four, the two of them bagged seven of the eight goals in the match.
Previously, Shanghai women's soccer head coach Shui Qingxia analyzed Banda's characteristics in an interview with a surging news reporter:
"She's physical, she's fast and physical, and she's not bad on her feet. Because she's so fast, she looks like (a type who relies on rushing), but she's not, she's more well-rounded."
As for how to defend this kind of player, whether it is a special person staring at the defense or the overall coordination of the defense, Shui Qingxia believes that it still depends on the tactical arrangements of the coaching team. But from the actual battle, our women's soccer team's defense arrangement did not play a role in the effect ......
After the game, China's women's soccer defender Wang Xiaoxue said in an interview, "In fact, there is a deployment of her staring coach, but obviously from the results we are not even good."
And the team's defensive performance through two games had to be a disappointment to our fans for the final group game.
Earlier, the Dutch women's soccer team beat the Zambian women's soccer team 10-3 wildly, some fans said on the Internet, "Playing the Netherlands, can our women's soccer team's goal conceded under double digits?"
Banda (center) is the country's top scorer in the Women's Super League.
A lineup of newcomers that ends up "paying for school"?
The poor defensive performance of our women's soccer team is critically linked to the absence of the big defender Wu Haiyan.
In the pre-Olympic preparation period, Wu Haiyan suffered a knee injury, this time, despite the team came to Tokyo, but under the injury still can only be on the sidelines to watch the game.
And the absence of some strength players, but also from a certain extent weakened the team's rear defense - for example, previously in the Olympic tournament play-offs as a side defender good Lou Jiahui, did not appear in this time China's women's soccer team in the Olympic list.
Lou Jiahui is not the only player who has been the subject of controversy due to falling off the Olympic roster.
Previously, Tang Jiali, Ma Jun and many other famous players are not in the Olympic list, it has sparked a hot discussion among the fans. Subsequently, China's women's soccer team only revealed to the public that Tang Jiali was absent due to injury.
In the absence of many familiar names, Jia Xiuquan has drafted in a number of newcomers - five of the 22-man squad have zero World A appearances and another five have between one and three (as of the Tokyo Olympics). Banda once questioned Jia Xiuquan's choice of lineup for our women's soccer team on Weibo.
Before the trip, Jia Xiuquan said in an interview, "To train more people for our country's women's soccer team, this is what I should do in this position. Otherwise, what about (the future)? This group of players may not necessarily have the fame of others, but for this Olympic mission I think these people may be the most suitable."
But in terms of the actual game, it's very inappropriate to go to a major tournament with a relatively inexperienced team.
In just two group games, Jia Xiuquan has given playing time to both Liu Jing and Uri Gumura, two players with no previous World A experience - the latter, in particular, coming on as an early substitute in the mid-30s in both games.
But in the second game, Uri Gumura replaced the field's high point of the offense, Youngman, after looking at the past became the turning point of the team from the lead to fall behind ......
There is still the last group stage, our fans can only wait for a miracle to happen - but the reality is often cruel, in our country football also need to be after the current Olympic Games, there is more to think about.
Women's soccer needs a blueprint for the future and a plan to stay in the ocean, not to "pay tuition" again and again.
