In the early morning of April 5, China's women's soccer team embarked on a journey to South Korea, kicking off the Asian qualifying round of the Tokyo Olympics women's soccer qualifying tournament. The showdown with the South Korean women's soccer team will take place on the 8th and 13th at the Goyang Stadium and Suzhou Olympic Sports Center in South Korea, where the two sides will compete in two rounds of fierce battles for a valuable Olympic ticket. However, the journey of our women's soccer team will not be a smooth one this time, as the challenges brought by the epidemic are like a heavy fog, setting up insurmountable obstacles for them.
In the face of the tight schedule of the game, the National Football Association agreed in advance that both sides only need to provide proof of a negative nucleic acid test, and in the entry to accept the test again, all negative can be checked into the hotel, to start the normal preparation for the game. According to the international epidemic prevention routine, the two national football associations will provide convenient access for the other national team and arrange special reception to ensure the tightness of the epidemic prevention work. However, our women's soccer team encountered unexpected treatment after arriving at Incheon International Airport.
Chi Jun, who is the immunization officer of our women's soccer team, revealed that it took two and a half hours for our women's soccer team to enter the country at the airport, with cumbersome procedures, numerous forms to fill out, and at least six checkpoints before finally boarding the bus to the designated hotel. The Korean National Football Association (KNFA) did not provide a fast-track entry channel in accordance with the usual practice, and there was no docking officer at the airport to make arrangements.
Although this cannot be entirely attributed to intentional obstacles on the part of the South Korean side, after all, the outbreak situation in South Korea is just as serious. on April 3, there were 543 new confirmed cases across the country, of which 514 were community-acquired, 29 were imported from outside the country, and 4 died, making it five consecutive days of more than 500 new cases. The new coronavirus has spread not only in densely populated Seoul but also in neighboring Gyeonggi Province. The city of Goyang, where the women's soccer team traveled, is located in the west-central part of Gyeonggi-do, just a 30-minute drive from Seoul.
Despite the seriousness of the epidemic situation, in order to put pressure on our team, South Korea will still partially open the stadium for the first match of the China-Korea women's soccer team and will not take the form of an empty stadium. Whether or not our women's soccer team can overcome the pressure under the influence of the epidemic will be the key to whether or not they can beat South Korea in the match on the 8th.
