2023-07-21 01:02:00
Chinese women’s football team actively preparing for match in Australia Xinhua News Agency
Shui Qingxia, head coach of the Chinese women’s football team, released by Xinhua News Agency
Yangcheng Evening News reporter Su Yun
The 2023 Women’s World Cup kicks off on the 20th. The first group match of the Chinese team will start in Perth, Australia on the 22nd against the Danish women’s football team. This is the first World Cup for the Chinese women’s football team after Shui Qingxia became the head coach.
Positive changes in the Chinese team
But the road ahead is not smooth
This is the eighth World Cup that the Chinese women’s football team participated in. The first Women’s Football World Cup in history was held in Guangzhou in 1991. The Chinese team finally ranked fifth among the 12 participating teams. Shui Qingxia, who was 25 years old at the time, came off the bench twice. Since then, the Chinese team only missed the Women’s World Cup in 2011. The most brilliant achievement was the runner-up in the 1999 US Women’s World Cup. In the last Women’s World Cup in France, the Chinese team entered the round of 16, but lost to Italy 0-2 in the quarter-finals.
Today, four years later, the qualifying situation for the Chinese team is even more severe. One is because the World Cup has expanded from 24 participating teams to the top 32. In the past, the top three in the group could qualify, but now only the top two in the group can qualify. This time, China is in a group with England, Denmark and Haiti. It is not easy to continue the past achievements of qualifying for the knockout round as long as they participate in the World Cup.
Second, the situation of women’s football in the world has undergone tremendous changes. Shui Qingxia has a clear understanding of this. She once said that she watched the 2019 World Cup live, but the world women’s football has changed more than expected in the past four years. European teams’ pressing, offensive and defensive transitions, and technical use have all greatly improved. Judging from the results of a series of recent warm-up matches against strong teams, the Chinese team lost 1 to 4 to Sweden, 0 to 3 to Spain, and 0 to 3 to Brazil. In terms of physical confrontation and tacit understanding of passing and receiving, the Chinese team has a certain distance.
However, after Shui Qingxia took office, the Chinese team has also undergone many positive changes. First of all, after selection and reorganization, the team’s personnel allocation is more reasonable, and the team’s internal atmosphere and spirit have taken on a new look. In the Asian Cup, the team played the sonorous rose temperament of going forward bravely and not being afraid of failure. Now the team includes the best players in China, including 7 experienced “old” players who have competed in the World Cup for the third time, including Wang Shuang, Wang Shanshan, and Lou Jiahui. There are also more fresh blood, such as Chen Qiaozhu, Zhang Linyan, Li Mengwen, Shen Mengyu, Wu Chengshu, and several “post-00s” players such as Wang Linlin and Dou Jiaxing.
What is even more gratifying is that a group of overseas players, such as Wang Shuang, Zhang Linyan, Shen Mengyu, Yang Lina, etc., can further enhance the strength of the Chinese women’s football team and broaden the team’s tactical vision. The teenager Zhang Linyan won the Golden Globe Award of the Swiss Women’s Super League not long ago; as a member of the overseas international team, Yang Lina commented that she has improved after playing in France and Spain. “I used to be an offensive midfielder. After I went out, I became a defensive midfielder. And the defense is fiercer than before, and I can better adapt to the rhythm of European and American players.”
The goal of the Chinese team this time is to qualify for the group stage and strive to enter the quarterfinals. From the analysis of the opponents in the group stage, given that the European Cup champion England has basically secured a qualifying spot, if the Chinese team wants to qualify for the group stage, the first match with the Danish team will be a “life-and-death battle”.
aging american team
European women’s football is booming
Compared with previous editions, this Women’s World Cup has many positive changes. For the first time, two countries, Australia and New Zealand, will jointly host the competition. The participating teams have expanded from 24 to 32 teams. Eight new teams including Portugal, Vietnam and Zambia made their debut. Corresponding to the vigorous development of the world women’s football movement, the prize money of this World Cup has also been greatly increased, reaching a total of 152 million US dollars, which is about three times the total prize money of the 2019 Women’s World Cup. Each participating player can receive a guaranteed income of US$30,000, and the champion members will receive a bonus of US$270,000. Although there is still a certain gap between this distribution plan and the men’s football, FIFA promises that by the time of the 2027 Women’s World Cup, its bonus will be the same as that of the 2026 Men’s World Cup, truly achieving “equal pay for equal work”.
With the improvement of the strength of women’s football around the world, many teams this year have the ability to compete for the championship. The strength of the four-time defending champion US team is beyond doubt, and they are also the team that has won the most championships in the past. In the 2022 CONCACAF Women’s Football Championship, the US team won all five games while scoring 13 goals and conceding 0 goals, showing a strong dominance. However, judging from their performance in the warm-up match, they lost to England, Spain and Germany successively. As one of the teams with an older average age in this World Cup (nine players are over 30 years old), the US team will face more shocks this year.
However, in the past two cycles, the European women’s football has been popular and has developed extremely rapidly. Many teams have the confidence to challenge the defending champion US team. In the 2019 Women’s World Cup, European teams occupied 7 of the top 8. In 2019, Spain and Italy established their own professional women’s football leagues. Coupled with the inclination of resources from men’s football clubs, European women’s football has been further developed.
This time, the Chinese women’s football team’s opponent England is one of the favorites to win the championship. In the last Women’s World Cup, the England team maintained a complete victory from the group stage to the quarter-finals. In the semi-finals, they lost 1-2 to the US women’s football team and stopped in the semi-finals. In the 2022 Women’s European Cup, the England women’s football team won the European Cup for the first time in team history, which also gave them greater ambitions to make history on the stage of the Women’s Football World Cup. The team is currently ranked fourth in the world, and head coach Sarina Wegman is the freshly-baked 2022 FIFA Women’s Football Coach of the Year.
In addition, the German, Swedish, French and Dutch teams all have considerable impact. The German team is currently ranked second in the world and has won two consecutive championships in 2003 and 2007. At present, most of the members of this German team come from the two overlords of the local league-Bayern Munich Women’s Football and Wolfsburg Women’s Football. The Swedish women’s football team, ranked third in the world, is equally strong. In the past seven World Cups, their worst result was the quarter-finals. They have won three third places and one runner-up. Now their main players basically play in the top European leagues, and the strength of the third line is quite balanced. The main frame of the French team, which is basically composed of players from the European women’s football hegemony Lyon, also has the ambition to hit the championship. The Dutch women’s football team is the most rapidly improving team in the past 10 years. In 2015, they participated in the World Cup for the first time and stopped at the top 16. In 2017, they won the Women’s European Cup. In the 2019 World Cup, they even won the runner-up. However, after 2019, the state of the Dutch team has declined. It is the third time to set foot on the World Cup. The Dutch women’s football team will play more of a spoiler role.
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