On July 1, in the semifinals of the 2023 Women's Basketball Asian Cup, the Chinese team defeated the host Australian team 74:60. In the other semi-final of the day, Japan beat New Zealand 88-52 to reach the final of the Asian Cup for the sixth time in a row, once again becoming China's opponent.
In the first two Asian Cups, the Chinese and Japanese women's basketball teams both met in the finals, but unfortunately, the Chinese women's basketball team lost and did not reach the top in the first five consecutive Asian Cups, while the Japanese team achieved five consecutive Asian Cup championships.
In this Asian Cup, Japan performed well, not only winning three consecutive games in the group stage, but also beating Australia 91:66. Although the Chinese team also won all the group stage, due to the absence of two main players Li Yueru and Huang Sijing due to injury, the overall strength was reduced, and they almost broke in the battle with the South Korean team, and finally achieved a difficult reversal through overtime. Therefore, this time they met the Japanese team again, and the Chinese team was ready to fight a vicious battle.
Looking back at the history of the Women's Basketball Asian Cup, it is not difficult to find that the Chinese women's basketball team and the Japanese women's basketball team are the two most dominant teams in the Asian Cup in recent years. In the golden period of the previous generation of Chinese women's basketball, the Chinese women's basketball team dominated the Asian Cup. But after winning its last title in 2011, the rising Japanese women's basketball team embarked on a five-time Asian Cup winning streak. Now, the Chinese women's basketball team finally has another chance to regain the championship.
The Chinese women's basketball team rose to the first place in the women's basketball Asian Cup power list
On June 22, Beijing time, FIBA officially announced the latest strength list of the 2023 Women's Basketball Asian Cup, and the Chinese women's basketball team surpassed Japan to rise to the first place. The Australian women's basketball team rose to third and the South Korean women's basketball team ranked fourth.
The Women's Basketball Asian Cup has not been valued by various teams before, and the Chinese women's basketball team originally planned to use the Asian Cup as a stage for young players to train. However, due to FIBA's format reform, the women's basketball qualification tournament for the Paris Olympics, originally scheduled for November this year, will be merged with the Women's Asian Cup in June, and the importance of the Women's Asian Cup has increased sharply. In the end, the results of this Asian Cup will determine the number of places for the Paris Olympic Games, and only the top 4 will qualify for the Olympic women's basketball qualification tournament; At the same time, these 4 teams can also get a direct place in the 2026 Women's Basketball World Cup.
Therefore, the Chinese Basketball Association previously hoped that all players who played in the WNBA would go to Sydney and the national team to meet in preparation for the Women's Basketball Asian Cup. Due to Li Meng's return, the Chinese women's basketball team temporarily surpassed the Japanese women's basketball team in the strength list and soared to the top of the strength list.
There are three problems on Chong Guan Road that need to be improved
In the past few games, although the Chinese women's basketball team has not tasted a single defeat, it still exposes three problems, and there is an urgent need for improvement on the way to the championship.
One is slow heating. Judging from the first two games of the group stage, the Chinese women's basketball team started a little slowly and hot, and they all opened the score in the third quarter. The game on June 28 still did not improve much at this point, the Korean women's basketball team played a wave of 7-0 in the first quarter, Kim Weina hit a three-point shot to stop the bleeding at the key moment, and then until the third quarter before the women's basketball girls The Korean women's basketball team was sluggish on the offensive end, making up for the hole dug in the opening game; The second problem is that there are many mistakes. In the game on June 28, the Chinese women's basketball team made 12 halftime mistakes and was once opened by the South Korean team by double-digit points; The third is that the outside of the Chinese women's basketball team is too sluggish, which is also an old problem exposed in the past few games. If you have a good chance but can't shoot, when you face a stronger opponent later, it may determine the direction of the game.
Compared with the 2022 World Cup squad, the 12-man roster of the Chinese women's basketball team for the Asian Cup has been adjusted in four places, Li Yueru, Huang Sijing, Wu Tongtong and Dilana are all absent due to injury, and their vacancies are replaced by Yang Shuyu, Luo Xindi, Gao Song and Tang Yu respectively. Among them, Luo Xindi performed well in the previous European training and was also selected into the list of five new stars of the Asian Cup announced by FIBA. "No matter who the team is, we have to do even if we have only 1% hope, but also give 100% of our efforts." Zheng Wei said.
The good news is that the two offensive players of the Chinese women's basketball team, Li Meng and Han Xu, are in better and better shape, as the "first height" and "first intensity" in the Chinese women's basketball team, the two will also determine what kind of ceiling the team can reach in this tournament.
In this Asian Cup, the most important task of the Chinese women's basketball team is to obtain the right to participate in the Paris Olympic qualification tournament and the 2026 Women's Basketball World Cup. And these goals were actually achieved as early as after the team won all three games in the group stage. Therefore, to this day, the Chinese women's basketball team has only one goal left - to regain the top of the Asian Cup.
The final of the Women's Asian Cup will be played on the afternoon of July 2, Beijing time. Whether the Chinese women's basketball team won the Asian Cup after 12 years and whether the Japanese team achieved six consecutive championships, the ultimate suspense of this Asian Cup will be revealed.
Source | Yangcheng Evening News • Yangcheng Pai Comprehensive Xinhua News Agency CCTV Sports China News Network Guangzhou Daily Beijing News Sports Shangguan News @中国篮球之队等
Responsible Editor | Liang Zeming
Editor: Liang Zeming
Source: Yangcheng Evening News • Yangcheng Pai