At noon on April 5, Beijing time, our women's soccer team departed from the Gusu Taimei Xiangguli Hotel and embarked on a flight to Seoul, South Korea. In the evening, the team took a flight out of Shanghai to prepare for their first match with the Korean women's soccer team at the Goyang Stadium in South Korea for the Asian Zone play-offs for the Tokyo Olympics, which will be held on April 8th.
Anti-epidemic measures are tightly deployed
The double round-robin tournament between the women's soccer teams of China and South Korea had been postponed from March last year in view of the epidemic. It was not until late February this year that the AFC finalized the matches to be played on April 8 and 13 in South Korea and China. The tournament was made possible by the active communication and close cooperation between the two governments, football associations and the AFC.
It is reported, in order to ensure that the epidemic prevention measures in place during the visit to South Korea, the CFA in addition to sending leader Zheng Chaoyong, Association of Foreign Affairs Minister Luo Zhao is responsible for the team in South Korea during the day-to-day, training and foreign affairs work, but also specially assigned a wealth of Super League tournament epidemic prevention experience Qi Jun as the travel of the epidemic prevention officer.
After arriving in Seoul at 6 p.m. local time on the 5th, our women's soccer team will be escorted to the quarantine point. The following day, after confirming the health of all members of the team, the team will be stationed in the hotel in the tournament area, and then in accordance with the requirements of the tournament area epidemic prevention for daily life, training and competition. The entire event in Korea will be in a "closed chain of quarantine".
Tactical arrangements are strictly confidential
Careful fans may have noticed that although our women's football team has organized several training sessions this year, the list has not yet been released to the public. The last official release of the training list of our women's football team was on October 23, 2020, after the conclusion of the Women's Super League last year. That month-long training was in preparation for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics Asian qualifying playoffs.
It is reported that it is the request of head coach Jia Xiuquan not to publicize information about the team, in order to prevent personnel and tactics from being leaked in advance, so we don't know much about the latest situation of our women's soccer team. In fact, last year's qualifiers, excellent form of our women's football has half a foot into the main round, Tang Jiali's long-distance shot will Australia into a desperate situation, but the final moments of the opponent tenacious equalizer, our women's football can only fight with the South Korean women's football team to compete for the last Asian seats, unfortunately failed to advance. From the point of view of the two teams' historical results and world rankings, China's women's soccer team occupies a clear advantage. In the last 5 matches against South Korea, China's women's soccer team achieved an undefeated record of 4 wins and 1 draw, while South Korea's women's soccer team has never entered the Olympic Games stage in history. Therefore, in terms of strength, our women's soccer team is not afraid of the Korean women's soccer team.
From the purple cow reporter's interview with some of the players, the players are also full of confidence in the face of South Korea's game. Shoulder the heavy responsibility of the impact of the Olympic Games, after a long time of hard training, I believe our women's soccer team is ready.
The president of the Football Association personally saw off the
On the day of the march, the official microblog of our women's soccer team posted: "Women's soccer girls, cheers! We believe that no difficulties can stop you from moving forward, bravely go on the journey! Looking forward to your triumph!" It is worth mentioning that Chen Xuyuan, the president of the CFA, also personally sent the team to the away game, which shows the importance of the Olympic play-offs is extraordinary.
It is also understood that an Australian referee will officiate the first round match between the two teams on August 8, while a Japanese referee will officiate the second round match in Suzhou. In addition, according to the Korean side's arrangement, about 1,600 fans will be allowed to enter the first round match in Goyang and the visiting fans' stand will be opened.
