The final of the 2022 Women's Asian Cup coincided with the sixth day of the first lunar month of the traditional Chinese New Year. The game process can be described as suspenseful, and finally the Chinese women's football team reversed the Korean women's football team 3-2 and won the ninth Asian Cup championship trophy. Compared with the men's football team against Vietnam on the first day of the Chinese New Year, Chinese football can be described as experiencing a double day of ice and fire in a week. The men's World Cup qualifiers are out, the women's asian cup wins, and the family is happy and worried. After Li Tie, Li Xiaopeng's coaching level has once again been questioned by the public! Also shortly after taking office, one lost decently, and the other won a lot of pots. In our opinion, Shui Qingxia, who has been in office for less than three months, has allowed the Chinese women's football team to break the curse that has lasted for 16 years, before the Asian Cup, Shui Qingxia said, "I once played in the Asian Cup as a player, and now I am here again as a manager." It was an honorable and challenging job, but most importantly, coming back to the big family of the national team made me feel great. Shui Qingxia's appointment has brought remarkable results to the Chinese women's football team, and it has brought hope to Chinese football to this day.
In the quarterfinals against Vietnam, the Chinese women's football team once fell behind 0-1. After the half-time break, Shui Qingxia let Wang Shuang and Tang Jiali swap positions, and then Wang Shuang twice sent assists within 3 minutes to help the Chinese women's football team complete the reversal. In the final against Japan, Shui Qingxia made a bold decision to let Wang Shuang, who was slightly injured, serve as a substitute. In the situation of falling behind twice, Shui Qingxia helped the team to maintain the determination to win, equalizing in the last minute twice and winning in the penalty shootout. At the Tokyo Olympics last year, the Chinese women's football team was out of the group stage with 1 draw and 2 losses, and Jia Xiuquan's dismissal has become inevitable. In September 2021, Shui Qingxia temporarily served as the coach of the Chinese Women's Football United Team during the National Games and led the team to win the championship. But in the initial manager recruitment of the Chinese Football Association, she did not participate in the competition. However, on November 13, the recruitment of the manager was urgently stopped; six days later, on November 18, the Chinese Football Association officially announced that Shui Qingxia had become the new manager of the Chinese women's football team.
The voice of public opinion questioning is inevitable, and the water guide only proves himself with the results on the field. The Women's Asian Cup is the first test, she trusts the veteran, promotes new people, and leads the Chinese women's football team to win 2 consecutive group stages, scoring 11 goals and conceding 0 goals; in the quarterfinals, she defeated Vietnam 3-1 with the first goal conceded. In the semi-final against Japan, Shui Qingxia's tactical arrangement and substitution adjustments were even more classic, with two draws behind and two equalizers, especially wang Shanshan's absolute draw in the 119th minute! In the end, the confident Chinese women's football team won the penalty shootout and reached the final for the first time in 14 years.
In the final against South Korea, the Chinese team once again fell behind by two goals, and Shui Qingxia's adjustment at the key moment once again played a miraculous effect. She first replaced Lou Jiahui and Wu Chengshu with Zhang Rui and Xiao Yuyi, and then boldly replaced Wang Shuang with Zhang Linyan, using Xiao Yuyi and Zhang Linyan's breakthrough ability to constantly create threats, who used the header under unfavorable circumstances to equalize. From the quarterfinals, semi-finals to the final, the Chinese women's football team was in a backward situation four times, and this time it turned the danger into a disaster, killing Japan twice and also scoring a dead end against South Korea. After Xiao Yuyi broke the door, Shui Qingxia clenched her fists and shouted, tears of excitement swirled in her eyes, for Shui Qingxia, at this moment, all the pressure was released.
In the history of Chinese women's football, there are a total of 8 Asian Cup champions, and the managers at that time were all men. In 1986 it was Cong Zhiyu, in 1989 and 1991 it was Shang Ruihua, from 1993 to 1997 it was Ma Yuan'an who completed the unprecedented four consecutive championships, and in 2006 Ma Liangxing. Shui Qingxia was the first female coach to lead the team to win the championship. At the same time, the first coaching of the coaching career won the Asian Cup, which also made Shui Qingxia the first person in history to win the Women's Asian Cup as a player and manager.
Coaching the Chinese women's football team for 80 days, Shui Qingxia has brought a lot of changes to this team. She trusts veterans, promotes new people, has experience, tactics, and brains, and leads the team to stage a series of reversals in the knockout rounds. From the olympic group stage out to the Asian Cup to win, the progress has been very obvious, and the water guidance really makes people see the future of China's women's football team.
Without accumulating steps, there is no way to go thousands of miles; without accumulating small streams, there is no way to become a river and a sea. The achievements of Chinese women's football in the Asian Cup are inseparable from the vigorous development of women's football in these years. In terms of league, the operating expenses of the Chinese women's football league reached 2 million US dollars, slightly ahead of the second-place England women's football team. The third to fifth places were South Korea, Japan and Germany, all of which exceeded $1 million, with the rest all over $1 million. In terms of league club income, the highest average income is the Japan Women's Football League, which exceeds $1.5 million. China came in second, with England at more than $1 million. In addition to the style and past achievements of the Chinese women's football team, which have been praised by fans, their income level has also improved well compared with many years ago. It is reported that the main players of the league can get 300,000-400,000 / year, the salary of international players can be 500,000-600,000 / year, with the opening of the Chinese football market more and more players began to go to the world, opening a new wave of foreign enthusiasm. Shen Monroe (Oren Athletic), Shen Mengyu (Celtic) and Tang Jiali (Tottenham Hotspur) became the new women's football trident. In terms of youth training, the number of centers has increased from 14 to 25, and the number of teams in the youth training center has also expanded from the original 62 teams to 136 teams, an increase of more than 64% and 119% respectively. The number of trainees also reached nearly 3,000, an increase of 121%, and the number of coaches in the youth training center also increased at the same time.
The development of football is not an overnight thing, although compared with the Chinese men's football team, the women's football team still retains the last stubbornness and dignity of Chinese football, hoping to use the women's football team's cup experience and the lesson of the men's football team to impact the world cup failure again, in exchange for the sunny days of the future of Chinese football.