Since the smoke cleared from the Tokyo Olympics women's soccer qualifiers last month, a member of China's women's soccer team, Wang Frost, has returned to the public eye after a long absence with dazzling performances, joining hands with her teammates to fulfill their Olympic dreams. As the leader of our women's soccer team, Wang Frost has naturally become the focus of the media.
Top of the table: "Tears on the field, even at 0:2 I still believe I can turn it around"
Back to that decisive game: April 13, 2021, Gusu Olympic Sports Center, the second round of the Tokyo Olympics Women's Football Asian Qualifying Round Playoffs, China's women's football team, trailing by two goals at halftime, launched a stunning comeback to beat South Korea by a two-game aggregate score of 4:3, to win the last Asian zone ticket to the Tokyo Olympics. In this crucial battle, Wang Frost first scored from a free kick and then broke the goal with a long-distance shot in overtime, becoming the key figure to turn the game around.
WANG Frost: At that moment, I was in tears, and just at that moment, I was relieved.
Reporter: Can you talk about your feelings?
Wang Frost: Since returning from Paris, I've endured a great deal of skepticism. When I was able to score a goal in a game like this and help my team get a ticket to the Olympics, I was overjoyed. When it came down to the final overtime, all I was fighting for was fitness. We always believed that even when we were down 0:2, we could beat our opponents.
Campus Solo Dancer "Soccer makes me feel confident"
Post-95 girl Wang Frost, a native of Wuhan, Hubei Province, whose cousin Cao Guodong is a soccer player, Wang Frost initially followed her cousin to play soccer, and later received formal training at the club, showing amazing soccer talent.
Wang Frost: When I was a kid playing soccer with the boys on the field, I was so happy that I was the only girl on the whole campus playing soccer with the boys, but I didn't feel that I was different. When I grabbed the ball with them and kicked it into the goal, we didn't let me because I was a girl, and it was in that moment that I practiced the spirit of not losing. I felt that if I kicked the ball well, I could be seen by many people.
Wang Frost quickly rose to prominence in Wuhan's soccer scene thanks to her focused, flexible and cerebral skill-set, as well as her tenacious and defiant personality. She was selected for the national junior team at the age of 12, the national youth team at 15, the national team at 17, and made her mark in international competitions at the age of 20. She helped China's women's soccer team beat the United States again after nine years in a warm-up match between the Chinese and American women's soccer teams; helped China's team draw with Asian powerhouse North Korea in the second round of the Rio Olympics qualifiers, earning valuable points for the advancement to Rio; was named to the AFC's best XI after dedicating four goals to the Asian Cup in April 2018; and dedicated six goals to help China's women's soccer team finish as the 18th Asian Games runner-up at the Asian Games.
The domestic stage is cold and the French Ligue 1 stage is blooming.
Mention of China's women's football, many people still stay in the summer of 1999, the World Cup runner-up, the Olympic silver medal so that China's women's football team won the "clanging rose" reputation. However, with the international women's football rapidly into the era of professionalization, China's women's football and the former glory is fading away, facing the embarrassment of no one applauded.
Wang Frost: It's very cruel, maybe only standing on the stage of the national team, people can see you. Because in the club, including our women's soccer league is not much broadcast, and not so many people can come to the scene to see you. So, when you can stand on the international stage, let more people see, you will have a very strong sense of integration to represent your country, especially cherish this opportunity.
In 2018, Wang Frost decided to play in France, where there is a more advanced soccer culture and higher-intensity matches against the competition. She signed a two-year contract with Ligue 1 giants Paris Saint-Germain.
In France, Wang Frost won the starting position in two training sessions, 22 rounds of Ligue 1, in addition to missing the first round due to the Asian Games, the rest of the 21 rounds of 18 appearances, 14 starts, contributing seven goals and eight assists. In the Champions League, she made four starts, contributing a goal and an assist, as well as an opponent's oval directly caused by a corner kick. Wang Frost became the first Chinese mainland player to score in the Champions League. Paris Saint-Germain women's soccer manager commented on Wang Frost: "This is a player who will play with her brain."
"Lost the joy of playing soccer" after a poor World Cup performance.
In 2018, Wang Frost won the title of "Miss Asian Football", which is our players after 12 years again won this award, but also let people have more expectations for the results of our team in the 2019 World Cup in France. However, in this World Cup, the pressure of Wang Frost's performance was mediocre, three group matches did not play a full game, and did not get a goal, and finally, China's women's football team stopped in the round of 16.
Reporter: What was that like?
Wang Frost: Let's not talk about the lack of goals, when you can't help the team on the pitch, not even a nice assist, you will be very disappointed. Undeniably, I have a lot of fans to watch every game when I was in Paris, and I was living in the limelight, but I gradually realized that the national team needs to build a team of steel through a long period of time, and my personal flash just let me improve my personal ability, but could not drive our women's football team to move forward, so I didn't really want to play football in that period of time, and I lost the joy of playing football.
After the World Cup, Wang Frost released her contract with Paris Saint-Germain club early to return home and prepare for the Olympics with her teammates in China's women's soccer team.
Forced to stay in Wuhan, the living room and terrace are training grounds.
The outbreak of the Xin Guan epidemic, so that the Tokyo Olympic Games women's football qualifying tournament in tatters, and for Wang Frost, more than a few twists and turns.January 23, 2020, the lunar calendar, the twenty-ninth day of the Lunar New Year, the day is Wang Frost's birthday, she returned to Wuhan after the end of the women's football training in Wuhan home, but also the day, Wuhan, "closed to the city". Wang Frost and two other Wuhan players were forced to stay in Wuhan and were unable to travel to Australia to participate in the first phase of the Women's Olympic Qualifying Tournament.
Wang Frost: Anxiety, fear of not being able to return to the national team to play in the Olympic Games, I also tried to send a text message to Coach Jia to see if I could coordinate to let me return to the national team, but the situation was really too serious at that time, and we were not able to return to the force.
Due to the epidemic stranded at home Wang Frost did not slack off, she insisted on training every day, the living room of the home, the upstairs terrace, are her training place.
Wang Frost: I was watching TV at home at that time, watching my palms sweating, and the one against Australia, we got the goal first, and when I saw that we scored, I literally screamed and jumped up and down at home.
After the longest qualifier to "destroy the city" in the Olympic Games in Tokyo.
On April 16, 2020, Wang Frost ended the isolation observation, three Wuhan players returned to the "big force", preparing for the home and away playoffs with South Korea. Into 2021, China's women's soccer team did not publicize the training list, training time, training location, but also refused all media interviews and reports, without distractions to prepare for the war. The girls trained more than 10,000 meters per class, and everyone was gritting their teeth. However, due to the epidemic, the play-off between China and South Korea was postponed for five consecutive times.
Reporter: During that period, as soon as we heard that the match was postponed, we were very frustrated because we felt that we had prepared very well, and had that desire that they would come over and fight us directly and we could take them down, and the passion for fighting was at its peak. But every now and then, we would get the news that the game was pushed back, and we were feeling so miserable.
The 130-day-long preparation has allowed Wang Frost to rediscover herself and better integrate into our women's soccer team. In the two-round match against South Korea, Wang Frost proved her worth as a ball player with her skills and power.
Wang Frost: I'm glad that our media friends can publicize our women's soccer team more and let more people get to know our women's soccer team. We women's soccer players cherish every stage of the national team, because we can let more people see that female soccer players can also be so healthy, sunny and beautiful, I believe that our team can make a breakthrough in the Tokyo Olympics, and I also expect that our fans and friends can recognize our new generation of China's women's soccer team.
Reporter: Describe your expectations for the Tokyo Olympics in one word?
