** Reported by Mr. Cheng Shan **
China's women's soccer team is about to embark on its journey to the main round of the Tokyo Olympics on April 5, and its first match will be a fierce encounter with South Korea's women's soccer team. Originally scheduled for early 2020, the two matches have been postponed five times, and are finally scheduled to take place on April 8 at 15:00 and April 13 at 16:00 in South Korea and China, respectively.
Although it is customary to predict the outcome of matches through the historical records of the Chinese and South Korean women's soccer teams, which give China the edge, the outcome of this showdown will depend more on the psychological and mental aspects of the epidemic.
The Korean Football Association (KFA) has invited the Chinese women's soccer team to their home stadium at the risk of a major epidemic, which is proof of the importance they attach to this Olympic ticket. The game venue failed to choose a more impartial third party, but also to the Korean Football Association recalled overseas players to provide enough time, in this context, the Chinese women's hard power advantage is no longer obvious.
According to the announced schedule, the Chinese women's soccer team will first face the South Korean team on April 8 in Goyang, and five days later, on April 13, the two sides will start the second round in Suzhou. Such schedule arrangement is contrary to the domestic entry epidemic prevention and quarantine policy, and the most worrying thing is that the Chinese women's soccer team in South Korea's epidemic prevention and control of safety issues.
According to Yonhap News Agency, on April 3, there were 543 new confirmed cases across South Korea (514 community-infected and 29 imported from outside the country) and four deaths, adding more than 500 new cases for five consecutive days. The cumulative number of cases in South Korea has exceeded 100,000, with 1,744 deaths. The new coronavirus is spreading not only in densely populated Seoul, but also in Gyeonggi Province near Seoul. The women's soccer team traveled to the visiting city of Goyang, which is located in west-central Gyeonggi Province, just 30 minutes from Seoul.
According to the plan, the Chinese women's soccer team will charter a plane to go, first accept the epidemic prevention inspection, stay in the epidemic prevention hotel, confirm that the nucleic acid test is not positive after the transfer to the hotel where they stayed during the game.
During the training period, the Chinese women's soccer team has maintained a high standard of prevention and control, cutting off contact with the outside world and conducting regular nucleic acid tests. Since China has done a very good job of epidemic prevention and control, it can be said that the Chinese women's soccer team will hardly bring any epidemic prevention and control risks to South Korea. But on the road, many details will have to follow the opponent's arrangements.
It is reported, China and South Korea women's football first game, South Korea will be part of the open stadium, and does not take the form of empty field, in order to the national audience for the home team to cheer, for the Chinese team to put pressure. Due to the epidemic situation in South Korea is still not optimistic, China and South Korea women's soccer team, including members of the coaching staff, in the locker room, the bench must wear masks, only in the game on the field can take off the mask.
It can be said that the seriousness of the epidemic prevention situation is even more than the game itself.
Much of the reason why the match has been delayed until now has to do with the fact that the KFA only recently applied for immunity so that it could recall all three of its best players from Europe. A number of injuries to the Korean women's soccer team and the inability of Brighton's Lee Kim Min, Chelsea's Ji Siao Ran and Tottenham Hotspur's Cho Cho Cho Hyun to return, coupled with the KFA's refusal to give up their home field advantage, have caused the match to be delayed.
In this Korean team's roster, Lee Kim Min, Ji Xiaoran & Cho Cho Cho Hyun are all listed. The problem is that the Premier League women's soccer team had already infected more than 4% of people with the new crown at the end of last year, and it is dangerous for the three South Korean returnees to practice with the national team after a hasty quarantine. It is important to know that South Korea's isolation requirement is only seven days, and of the 29 imported cases it recognized on April 3, 10 were diagnosed in quarantine at the time of entry, and 19 were diagnosed during the isolation period.
It can be said that the South Korean women's soccer team is also taking great risks in the preparation and competition, and this danger is bound to involve the Chinese women's soccer team. But the Korean women's soccer team's danger is their voluntary choice and acceptance, while the Chinese women's soccer team thus have to accept the risk, is more or less helpless.
Of course, South Korea's three returnees will face strict testing if they come to China to play, China's current entry policy is to implement a "double-negative test" standard, that is, not only can't be nucleic acid positive, antibody-positive also can't be, because theoretically, antibody-positive there is the possibility of re-positive. If any of the three Korean women's soccer returnees are really antibody-positive, it will be difficult for them to enter the country.
It can be said that the fight for this Olympic ticket is now more than just a competition between the two teams on the field, the Chinese women's soccer team needs to accept the double pressure, in the epidemic gripping South Korea at the moment, there is nothing more important than the health of all the people can come back. The Chinese women's soccer team also made full preparations for the trip, until the night before the trip, the team only know the final list. The local Chinese enterprises in Korea, also did a lot of homework for the Chinese women's football team to help prepare for the game, such as helping the women's football team to purchase safe milk, fruits, and some food suitable for the women's football team to eat, although the organizers have food and accommodation organization, but in order to better guarantee food safety, the Chinese women's football team will also do some preparations.
