Chinese women's football team to participate in the World Cup! As long as you work hard, you will give applause

The Women's World Cup will open on July 20, and with the expectations of fans, the Chinese women's football team is about to embark on a new journey.

On July 7, the team will fly from Guangzhou to Australia, the venue of the competition. On the evening of the 5th, the team held the last public training session in Qingdao before going abroad, and also revealed the current preparation to the media.

Shui Qingxia encouraged the players.

Even with the aura of the new Asian Cup winner, the team has a clear understanding of the harshness of the World Cup, as head coach Shui Qingxia said, "We must first have a correct positioning." ”

In front of the strong teams in Europe and the United States, the Chinese women's football team will go all out with the mentality of a challenger, "We will give the team full trust, no matter what happens, as long as she works hard, we will give her applause." ”

The training of the women's soccer players was filled with laughter.

Determining the list of expeditions is very tangled

On July 5, the Chinese women's football team announced the list of 23 players for the Women's World Cup, including veterans such as Zhang Rui and Lou Jiahui, as well as mainstays such as Wang Shuang and Tang Jiali, as well as potential newcomers such as Zhang Linyan.

From the perspective of overall strength and age structure, this is the most reasonable choice at the moment, but in the end, making such a decision is not easy for head coach Shui Qingxia.

Shui Qingxia told reporters that the list was finalized until July 4, after the last warm-up match with the Russian women's football team before going abroad - the process of deciding the list can be described as "tangled".

"As coaches, all the players have been preparing for the World Cup since they qualified, everyone has been working together for so long, and the players have trained really hard, everyone is 100% committed."

"There are also players in the middle who leave, and the players who leave are not saying that the level is not good, but because of the need for position, so it is quite regrettable, thank these players for their dedication and contribution to the team, and hope that the remaining players can devote themselves to the game."

In the process of choosing who to bring to the World Cup, Shui Qingxia stressed the importance of fairness as always, "The first thing is to meet the requirements of the coach during the training process. We will do some data comparison every day, and different positions have different requirements, which is more fair. ”

But she also said that in the fast-changing football field, data is difficult to decide, and in the end, it is chosen to serve the overall performance of the team. For example, if there are multiple players with different characteristics in a certain position, then who is ultimately selected needs to balance the technical and tactical requirements of the group.

"Maybe a hasty decision will have an impact on the players, after all, everyone wants to play in the World Cup."

Because of this, she wanted to give the players more time to express themselves, so she put the deadline for deciding the roster until the last minute, "I also want to say give a little more time to see if there will be any changes." ”

The World Cup and the Asian Cup are completely different

Facing the challenge of the World Cup, Shui Qingxia and the players know that everything is not the same.

For example, in February and April this year, the Chinese women's football team went to Europe twice for training and warm-up matches, but did not win against European countries...

4-1 defeat to Sweden, 0-0 draw with Ireland, 0-0 draw with Switzerland, 0-3 defeat to Spain... Such a warm-up match performance once again shows the gap between the Chinese women's football team and Europe.

"From the speed of offensive and defensive transitions to the degree of confrontation, European teams as a whole (at a level) are much higher than in Asia." At that time, Shui Qingxia said.

Now, before leaving, Shui Qingxia reiterated her opinion, "The Asian Cup championship is a thing of the past. The Asian Cup is completely different from the World Cup, including the 2019 and 2023 Women's World Cups. ”

"I know that many people have higher expectations for the Chinese women's team, which is an affirmation of the Chinese women's football team, and the mental state shown by the girls in the game is also very good."

But it has to be admitted that it is more difficult to win the World Cup than in Asian competitions, especially in today's Chinese women's team, there are many newcomers who still need to accumulate experience - only 9 of the 23-man roster have experience in the World Cup.

"There's a lot of uncertainty. We will give the team full trust and give her applause no matter what happens, as long as she works hard. ”

"For the whole team and the entire football environment, I also hope that everyone can see the Chinese women's football team face difficulties and meet challenges with a smile."

Every game is carefully prepared

In mid-May this year, the Chinese women's football team assembled in Shanghai for training, and then came to Qingdao in mid-June. According to the team's plan, the team will leave Qingdao for Guangzhou on the 6th and leave for Australia on the 7th.

In the final days of Qingdao, the team played two warm-up matches with the visiting Russian women's team, winning 1-0 and 2-1 respectively. Upon arrival in Australia, the team also plans to play a warm-up match against Brazil and Colombia ahead of the World Cup.

After the warm-up matches, the Chinese women's football team will face the official World Cup test - three group games, the Chinese women's team will play Denmark on July 22, Haiti on July 28 and England on August 1.

Facing the media, Shui Qingxia carefully analyzed each group stage opponent, "The first game against Denmark is very important for us, it is also important for them, first of all, I think it is more important to relax the mentality, play the existing level, and everyone unite to complete the task." ”

"After all, many players play in Europe, and their ability to adjust the game is still higher than ours, and I hope the Chinese team can win." Shui Qingxia said.

"The second opponent, Haiti, may not be familiar to everyone, and we have been analyzing it through video. Judging from the video, they have many players playing in Ligue 1, their physical fitness is particularly good, their speed is relatively fast, there are many unknowns, and it is also a challenge for us. ”

"To be honest, we are not necessarily psychologically superior to this kind of team with strong impact and strong individual ability. Of course, a lot of things are constantly improving and changing. ”

As for England, the opponents in the final group game, "everyone knows that this is the world's best team and is currently ranked number one. ”

But in Shui Qingxia's view, no matter whether the opponent is strong or weak, the goal of the Chinese women's football team is only one, "every game to play as hard as possible, to prepare one by one, I hope the media and fans and friends give us more strength." ”

"We first have to have a correct positioning. When the opponent's strength is stronger than you in all aspects, how to arrange your own skills and tactics, how to make up for the gap. ”

"Although it is impossible to leap to a certain extent all at once, with the right positioning, what way to go (catch up) is the most important."