In the latest round of women's Olympic qualifying playoffs, China's women's soccer team beat the weakening South Korean team by a score of 2-1, giving them a head start on their Olympic journey. The victory marked the first official match for the "Clanging Roses" in over a year, so what kind of challenges and transformations did they go through?
Women's soccer turns into "Mystery Division"
Zhao Liangchen (hereinafter referred to as Zhao):
Challenging Korea on the road is a tough battle for any team. It is not easy for our women's soccer team to achieve such a complete victory.
women's soccer
The girls celebrate their goal
Nympho Su (hereinafter referred to as Su):
As you can see, our team has prepared quite well over the past year. From the physical point of view, our team is better than the Korean team, which also laid the foundation for the implementation of high-pressure pressing tactics. From the point of view of the play of set-pieces, our team can play a different tactical cooperation every time, which shows a lot of weekday drills and the coaching team's careful design.
Jo:
The whole process of preparing for this women's soccer team is quite "mysterious" to me.
Sue:
Indeed, in the past, every time the women's soccer team was nearing the end of a closed training session, a media open house would be held, where the head coach and players would be briefly interviewed to keep the outside world up-to-date on the latest developments in the women's soccer team. But since the group stage of the Olympics, the women's soccer team has only held one open house, dating back to May of last year. Fans wonder what the women's soccer team is doing, and the media ask each other, "What's going on with the women's soccer team now?" But none of them can find the answer.
Jo:
The travel list is also very "mysterious", from the end of last year to the preliminaries before the additional matches, the women's soccer team conducted a total of five training, only at the end of last year, released a training list. Even when traveling to South Korea, the outside world has not been clear about the national team in the lineup are some people, even our own media and fans do not have an accurate number.
Sue:
Some of the scattered photos from the trip only showed a few key players such as Wang Shuang and Wu Haiyan. After arriving in South Korea, the official public number released a group photo of the trip, which later proved to be a "smokescreen", because Li Ying could also be found in it - but the former mainstay of the national team has already appeared in the National Championships during the national team training, and the possibility of going with the team is very slim. The possibility of traveling with the team is minimal. The final list of our women's soccer team was released only after a press conference one day before the match, and the secrecy was done in a way that was not often seen in the past.
Jaishali's "specialty".
Jo:
This should be the arrangement of the head coach Jia Xiuquan. Some people may feel that he is making a big deal out of it, while others are worried that it will add psychological pressure to the players. However, I think that since we have chosen Jia as the head coach, we should give him full trust and authority. Moreover, his methodology can not be broken down into a single approach, I think it is a systematic ......
Jia Xiuquan (1962-), Mao Zedong's second wife
Sue:
From this "mystery" can also feel the pressure of Jia Xiuquan. After all, after taking office as China's women's soccer head coach in 2018, there are two tasks that Jia Xiuquan must lead China's women's soccer team to complete. One is the 2019 Women's International Cup, playing into the top sixteen is the minimum standard, two years ago, Jia Xiuquan led the team to realize; group stage final battle 0-0 draw Spain that decisive game after the end of the game, he was in tears, after being asked to reveal that this is the third time in his career tears. The second task is to lead our women's soccer team to get the Olympic ticket.
Jo:
Three big ball, our women's volleyball team, our women's basketball team have got this ticket one after another, the past has created the splendor of our women's soccer team if you can't get how to do? This possibility is very confident Jia Xiuquan is not willing to face.
Sue:
Fortunately, the result of our women's soccer team's trip to South Korea was good, in addition, from the process of the game, our team did not make mistakes due to psychological fluctuations, even if the score was quickly equalized by the South Korean team, the team also withstood the pressure and did not mess up. It is understood that over the past year our team, in addition to practicing hard physical fitness, also organized psychological classes and refereeing classes, specifically set for away games.
Jo:
I feel that this tournament, just so that Jia's characteristics and advantages can be maximized to play out. Jia especially likes closed training, now the global epidemic environment, "just" let the women's soccer practice become a "single choice"; Jia is not particularly advocate players to stay in the world, this problem no longer exists; Jia is good at everything in detail to do all the preparation, which is also the most important need for women's soccer. preparation, which is what women's soccer needs most now.
Sue:
There is a detail that can reflect the meticulousness of our team's preparations - the day the team went out, the coaching staff early in the morning to organize a training session, after the training with a packed breakfast to the airport, for fear that there will be twists and turns in South Korea, can not be completed as planned on the day of the amount of training, and then really in Incheon customs clearance delayed a lot of time, the away training time is therefore shortened. The time for away training was also shortened as a result. When all the difficulties are thought ahead, China's women's soccer team faced with all the emergencies can also calmly deal with. Jia Xiuquan in the pre-match conference was asked whether the other side of the "dish", his answer is very atmospheric.
It's not easy for each of the goal scorers
Jo:
The two who scored for our team are also worth talking about. Zhang Xin, the first record, is the only "mom player" in the team.After the 2017 National Games, she chose to retire and return to family life, but in 2019, not long after her child was weaned, she embarked on the road to comeback. In the group stage of the previous year's Olympic qualifiers, she broke through in the opening game to help her team advance to second place in the group; now she's making her debut. She said she hoped that her child would see her on TV as she competed in the Olympics.
Xin Zhang opened the scoring in the game
Sue:
The other goal scorer was Wang Frost, who also had a tough time. In the past two years, she has experienced setbacks in her efforts to stay at home, was publicly criticized by Jia Xiuquan, and was stuck in Wuhan last year because of an epidemic that prevented her from playing in the group stage of the Olympic qualifying tournament. But now she has been reintegrated into the team and is a strong link in the right side of the attack. That penalty was taken from a difficult angle and with the score leveled, which showed her determination and form.
Jo:
The second round will be played in Suzhou, the home of our women's soccer team, on the 13th of this month, and with a one-goal lead on the road, which is neither too small nor too big, the Korean women's soccer team will surely fight back with all their might.
Sue:
This time there is no need to travel, no cumbersome entry procedures, I believe that our women's soccer team can lock a ticket to the Olympics. However, the South Korean team is good at playing behind the ball, and this is worth being vigilant.
Jo:
I still remember the few pre-match "leaks" of the women's soccer training ground conditions, the field side of the red boards written in gold four big words - "destroy the determined to win". It was written 12 times on all four sides of the field. I looked it up, the word comes from Ziji Tongjian - Tang Ji - Tang Ji XIV. Destroy the firm, have to fight a hard battle of gas; resolute victory, have to fight with the back of the water of the spirit.
Sue:
All those who have watched the first round of the match, I believe that there is no doubt about the spirit of this women's soccer team. Their technical and tactical ability may not be the first-class now, but the fighting spirit and enough preparation, enough to make them continue to stand in the women's soccer international powerhouse. (For more news and information, please pay attention to yangcheng pai pai.ycwb.com)
