Women's Super League The new season kicks out new momentum

Pictured is Shandong player Li Yanfei (front) shooting against Jiangsu on April 17. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Hu Zhixuan

The 2022 Chinese Football Association Women's Super League kicked off in April at the Mission Hills Football Base in Haikou, Hainan. In the new season, the Women's Super League adopts a double-round robin points competition format, increasing the number of matches and introducing a live broadcast platform to attract more attention.

For the Chinese women's football team, to enter the track of taking off again, the benign development and attention of the league is a powerful booster. This season's women's super league field has shown a good momentum of accumulating energy and entering a new stage.

Newcomers take the lead, and transmission control becomes the mainstream

On April 20, the fifth round of the Women's Super League ended. In the match of the day, Wuhan defeated Shandong 2:0 to win five consecutive wins and lead the league standings. Wuhan, which has a number of national team players, won the league championship trophy last season and continues to strengthen the squad this season, bringing in a number of Chinese women's national team players and Nigerian team captain Opanocci. Although the main player Wang Shuang was absent due to injury, Malawi foreign aid Tabitha, who scored nine goals last season, continued to be in excellent form, scoring 5 goals in 5 games and currently ranking first in the top scorer list.

Judging from the first five rounds of competitions, Jiangsu, Changchun, Beijing, Shanghai and other teams have carried out targeted reinforcements before the season, or have a relatively sufficient talent reserve, and have shown strong strength on the field.

It is worth mentioning that many young players have emerged in the league. Jiangsu coach Chen Wanting said before the start of the season that she pays more attention to the growth of young players, "Through the women's football championship, I have learned more about the team, and the players are younger and more energetic. Next, I will slowly build the confidence of the players. After 5 rounds of matches, Jiangsu performed eye-catchingly, ranking second in the table with a score of 4 wins and 1 loss, and the 21-year-old Ou Yiyao scored 3 goals, ranking at the top of the top scorer list. The Shanghai team, which has set the goal of "protecting three for one" in the new season, has also used a large number of newcomers in the game, and 16-year-old Yin Lihong came on as a substitute in the first two rounds and scored two goals.

A total of 10 teams in the Women's Super League this season competed in 4 stages. After the fifth round, the league will enter a short hiatus. The second phase will continue in Haikou on 1 May. The third and fourth stages of the competition are scheduled for June and October respectively.

Sun Wen, vice president of the Chinese Football Association, said: "Dividing the league into four stages, the number of games increased from 69 games last season to 90, for the players, it means more opportunities for training. Compared with last year's completion of the game in one division, this year is expected to achieve a phased change of the division, which can keep the players fresh and adjust their psychology. ”

"There are some welcome changes in the league." Sun Wen said, "For example, in terms of playing style, more teams choose to pass control, indicating that more and more teams have put forward higher pursuits for themselves and hope to play games with content." ”

Build your brand and expand your reach

At the Women's Asian Cup in February this year, the wonderful performance of the Chinese team in the final against defeat evoked people's good memories of "sonorous roses" and ignited many people's enthusiasm for women's football.

How to blow this "east wind" into the league, from the high-profile opening of the new season, you can see the attempt and effort. With the strong support of the league's title sponsor China Taiping, the overall exposure of the opening ceremony and the opening match live broadcast on the new media platform reached 120 million times.

In addition, in addition to the official self-media accounts of "Chinese Women's Football" and "Football China", as many as 9 new media platforms broadcast all the matches. Judging from the first round of game viewership data alone, the cumulative viewership of the new media platform exceeded 200,000 people, much higher than the same period last season. The cumulative ratings on tv in the opener have increased by 30 times compared to the 2021 season.

Sun Wen said: "We need to form a new positioning and understanding of the event brand. As the top women's football competition in China, the women's super league needs a variety of communication means and channels. In the new season, we have expanded in the field of new media, increased the number of live broadcasts, and increased the attention. Football culture and atmosphere must be cultivated, which is the direction of our efforts. ”

The ball market is cultivated, and there is room for rise

With the progress of the Women's Super League, it is not an overnight achievement to continue to form heat.

Shui Qingxia, head coach of the Chinese women's national football team, said in an interview that the current Chinese women's football team needs to "return everything to zero" and start over. Zhao Lina, Li Jiayue, Xiao Yuyi and Zhang Xin and other national team members also appealed that the outside world would not only care about the women's national football team, but also pay attention to the grass-roots development of China's women's football team.

Li Jiayue has made an attempt, frequently posting videos on personal social media, and also inviting teammates to interact with guests, garnering millions of attention. "Through my videos, a lot of people learn what a female footballer looks like." Li Jiayue said, "Everyone also knows some very good players, they are usually silently paying, I hope these young players can also be seen by more people." ”

In Sun Wen's view, the Chinese women's football team on the field also needs to change and improve, "the league also needs faster speed and higher intensity." "We have been emphasizing the running distance of more than 10,000 meters, but the proportion of high-speed running in it needs to be improved." In addition, the defensive ability is generally lacking, and compared with the strong teams in Europe and the United States, we have a gap, and it takes time to catch up. ”

In the Women's League A, held almost at the same time as the Women's Super League, the performance of the U17 (under-17) women's national football team attracted attention. The team, whose average age is less than 16 years old, defeated dalian women's football team in the third round and broke out a lot of cold. Sun Wen attaches great importance to the fact that young players can grow up as soon as possible and new people continue to emerge: "From the age of 15 and 17 to the age of 23, there are more games, and the sustainable development of women's football is more powerful." Putting the U17 national team in the lower leagues to be trained is to hope that young players can grow up as soon as possible. ”

For the future of the league, Sun Wen said: "The direction is right, everyone continues to pursue, you can see the progress of Chinese women's football." ”

People's Daily (2022-04-21 15th edition)