By Jia Yanfeng: In the late afternoon of July 10, the women's national soccer team unveiled its 22-player Olympic squad. Tang Jiali, Ma Jun and other people's absence, so that this list has triggered a hot debate. What are the selection criteria behind this list? How does head coach Jia Xiuquan balance old and new players? Let us unravel the mystery.
Talking about Tang Jiali's absence, the national team doctor revealed, "Tang Jiali was unfortunately injured during training, and after a detailed examination, she was diagnosed with 'synovitis of the left knee, injury to the medial collateral ligament and patellar ligament of the left knee', and the doctor advised her to rest and avoid strenuous exercise." This professional opinion forced Jia Xiuquan to remove her name from the list.
Since Jia Xiuquan took over the women's soccer team in May 2018, he has led the team to the Asian Games in Indonesia, the World Cup in France, the Olympic Qualifiers in Tokyo, and up to the Olympic Games proper. Observing the roster he released, there have been adjustments for each tournament. Jia Xiuquan's understanding of women's soccer has evolved from slowly figuring out to deeply grasping and then reshaping, gradually integrating his own philosophy of leadership into the team.
Since the Asian Games in Jakarta, Indonesia, Jia Xiuquan's hiring guidelines and decisions have been under scrutiny. On the eve of the World Cup, the move to include Peng Shimeng in the starting lineup had also sparked controversy. However, Peng's outstanding performance in the World Cup proved Jia Xiuquan's vision of hiring.
Apart from Peng Shimeng, Li Qingtong earned recognition for her brave performance when she was substituted at a crucial moment in the Olympic Preliminaries. Chen Qiaozhu, on the other hand, caught the train to Tokyo with her outstanding play in training.
Looking back at the Women's World Cup's previous roster, many veterans have faded out of the national team. The World Cup roster has changed dramatically from the first round of the Olympic playoffs. The first round of the play-offs to the Olympic main round of the tournament saw the removal of five more players from the roster.
The biggest change in the Olympic regular season list compared to the list in the qualifying stage is in the midfield. Ma Jun, Yao Lingwei, Yao Wei and Shen Mengyu all missed out on the Olympic roster, while Miao Shiwen, Yang Lina, Liu Jing and Wang Yan managed to make the cut. Wang Yan, who was the main back of the World Cup and once fell out of the Olympic Qualifying Tournament, is now back in the lineup; Yang Lina, on the other hand, was a contributor to the Asian Games final with zero entries.
It can be seen from the players coming in and out, Jia Xiuquan in the selection of people, based on the different conditions of each player at each stage to make a decision. The condition of the women's soccer players have fluctuations, who is in good condition who can be elected at that time. The player who was not elected does not mean that her strength is not good, it can only be said that at that stage there is a better condition of the player to replace her.
Therefore, now the players selected for the final regular season list, in addition to the positional talent, can only show that they are now in the best condition, the most suitable for the national team. Jia Xiuquan choose each player, also combined with the same group of opponents characteristics and their own tactical needs, which shows that the elected and elected and can not be summarized with the strength, with the condition as well as the characteristics of the more suitable to be more accurate.
Some people say that Jia Xiuquan was a youngster in his playing days, and he was also known for his ability to promote and use young players when he coached at Jianye in the past. In addition, since he took control of the women's soccer team, many women's soccer veterans faded out of the national team's starting lineup, and some people reasoned that Jia Xiuquan was born with a certain preconceived notion about the old players.
This problem reporter once before the start of the Olympic qualifiers, had asked Jia Xiuquan alone, in the July 10th interview, Jia Xiuquan also once again showed that the women's national team needs to be renewed, the young players need more opportunities to show their own, and the Japanese women's football team's rejuvenation is even more powerful than our team. Does this mean that when the women's soccer team is going to take the path of rejuvenation, it will intentionally give opportunities to the young people, thus giving up the old players?
In fact, Jia Xiuquan's transformation of the women's national team in terms of age structure is inseparable from his understanding of the status of the entire women's soccer talent pool and the characteristics of each of the women's soccer players.
As we can see, in preparation for the French Women's World Cup in June 2019, in fact, the time left for Jia Xiuquan is not so rich, and therefore he is still more focused on the veteran players with big game experience when using players. After the World Cup, see the performance of the players in the World Cup, as well as further investigation of the league, Jia Xiuquan found that the strength of the women's football players gap, more is still reflected in the experience of the competition, the young players is still the primary number of matches to play less, technical and tactical qualities of the gap is not insurmountable.
Jia Xiuquan also found that there is a very obvious difference between male and female football players, that is, the condition of female football players fluctuate more than male football players to be obvious, may be a training session when the condition is very good, but the next training session on the slide to the bottom. In this regard, Jia Xiuquan once indicated: "I don't have any favoritism for any age group of players, who are all from the young players through, who also have the day of aging. A team, different age groups of players play different effects, young players are the force, the old players also need. Any reasonable troop structure is definitely to be dominated by the middle generation, supplemented by young and old players. However, the old players are not to look at the absolute sense of physical age, everything still depends on the condition, the strength, the effect."
Now in the team, Wu Haiyan, Wang Shanshan, Wang Frost in fact, in a sense, are also considered veteran players, they have a wealth of experience in the competition, especially Wu Haiyan, every training has not been absent. Now there are four captains in the team, they are Wu Haiyan, Wang Shanshan, Wang Frost and Wang Xiaoxue. Jia Xiuquan especially emphasized that there is no distinction between the first and second captains, they are all captains. These four people have a common characteristic, is a strong character, the more frustrated the more courageous. Some international players said, follow Jia director to play together with the players, the first must have a big heart, encounter how big the scene can not panic, more can not be abashed, even if it is difficult to grit your teeth and persevere, concentration should always be maintained, can not meet these requirements will not be able to pass the first hurdle.
As for the competition experience, qualification, that should be placed in the back of this comparison, because the competition experience and personal qualification, can not replace the field of high-intensity running, as long as the toughness, valor, not afraid of the strong enemy's style of play, is the foundation of China's women's football rise again. Jia Xiuquan more than once to China's women's football players said: "in the Asian context, our professional quality are not superior, to the world stage, we can show what? Our own heart must be clear, we can take out, the first is for the national honor at all costs, the courage to fight to the end, with our strong and powerful running, no matter how much physical scramble, never say die, to show that belongs to our generation of women's football mental outlook."
Several young players elected this time, such as Uri Gumura, is Jia Xiuquan from taking over the women's soccer team soon began to notice, but at that time he thought that recruiting her into the national team is not yet fire, after all, the national team is not to young players gold-plated place, nor is it a practice field for young players, the national team is to give the real fighting young people to prove themselves on the stage. Regardless of the final Olympic results, I believe that this women's soccer team can play their tactical characteristics, to show their true style, even if there is no previous rose of technology, but also to have the spirit of the rose - fearless challenge, never say die.
