AUCKLAND, August 13 (Xinhua) -- If Rieko Ueki's penalty is one centimeter lower, and if Aoba Fujino's free kick rolls one centimeter forward, will the outcome of the World Cup in Japan be different?
It's a pity that football has no ifs. In the quarterfinals of the Women's World Cup on the 11th, the Japanese team hit the goal post twice in the second half and missed the final four. Yamato's attempt to return to the top has once again failed, but the football world has exclaimed that the mighty Japanese women's team is back, even if they are still ranked 11th in the world.
On August 11, the Japanese players comforted each other after the game. On the same day, in the quarterfinals of the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup in Auckland, New Zealand, Sweden defeated Japan 2-1 to advance to the semifinals. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Zhu Wei
Comparing the fate trajectories of the women's football teams in China and Japan, everything is so similar, and everything is so different.
The glory of the Japanese women's football team is so dazzling. They scored three consecutive finals at the 2011 World Cup in Germany, the 2012 London Olympics and the 2015 World Cup in Canada, winning the "One Championship and Two Runners-up", shocking the world with their ultimate pass-controlled football.
It's just that it's hard to fight the rivers and mountains, and it's even harder to defend the rivers and mountains. With the rise of women's football in Europe, Japan gradually slipped from the top, missing the Rio Olympics in 2016, losing to the Netherlands in the 2019 World Cup in France, and then being eliminated by Sweden in the quarterfinals of the 2021 Tokyo Olympics. It seems that in the process of the world's women's football team constantly pursuing "higher and faster", the Japanese women's football team seems to have fallen behind.
Until the new Japanese women's team appeared in this year's Women's World Cup, they beat Spain 4-0 and Norway 3-1, once again showing their ability to compete with the world's best teams. Today's Japanese women's football team, on the basis of retaining the original pass-control football, has become more direct and fast, and more varied. They lacked a little luck far from success.
The Japanese women's football team is heading for the summit again. Anyone familiar with Chinese women's football knows how difficult it is to rise back from the top. A look at what the Japanese women's team does may shed some light.
The road to the top of the mountain again is not easy. How to make changes after success tests the wisdom and courage of decision-makers. After the defeat of the 2019 World Cup in France, the Japanese Football Association realized that the quality of the old semi-professional league had lagged behind the trend of the times and could not adapt to the new competitive needs. In the context of the booming European women's football league, the Japanese women's football team must accelerate the process of professionalization.
Japan's Aoba Fujino (center) fights Sweden's Rolver (right) on August 11. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Zhu Wei
After two years of planning and preparation, the Japan Football Association officially launched the first national professional women's football competition, the WE League, in September 2021. The league requires each club to have at least 15 players with professional contracts, and must have a three-tier team of U18, U15 and U12. Based on the principle of preferring shortage to abuse, the Japan Football Association has established a strict application and access system to create a women's football club that truly meets professional standards.
The benefits of professionalization are obvious. Haruna Takada, Vice President of the Japan Football Association and Chairman of the WE League, said: "After becoming a professional club, the team's training time has increased, the players' physical fitness has improved, and their psychology has become more stable. The data shows that the player's ability is improving. ”
According to Japanese media statistics, in less than two years of operation of the WE league, the proportion of players using more professional and power-intensive technical moves such as long passes and long-range shots outside the box has been increasing. For the first time in the Women's World Cup, Japan's 23-man squad is made up entirely of professional players, with 11 of the 15 goals scored by domestic league players.
Of course, professional leagues cannot be achieved overnight, and Haruna Takada admits that the nascent WE league is far from comparable to the top leagues in Europe and the United States. In order to encourage female soccer players to stay in the world, the Japan Football Association launched the "Overseas Strengthened Designated Player" system many years ago, stipulating that national team players who play in the top 10 national leagues in the world of women's football can receive a job reserve of 200,000 yen and a living allowance of 10,000 yen per day.
In recent years, the pace of Japanese women's footballers exploring overseas leagues has accelerated significantly, with nine players playing in major European and American leagues this year's World Cup. Four players, Yui Hasegawa, Fuka Nagano, Risa Shimizu and Hayashiho no Ka, have all landed in the women's Premier League, which is the most competitive level today, after 2021. The results of the high-level overseas league workouts were immediate, and Jun Endo moved to the American team Angeles City in August 2022, and in less than a year, her fastest sprint speed increased from less than 30 km/h to 32 km/h.
At the level of national team building, the Japanese women's football team has also changed its appearance. In October 2021, Tai Ikeda, who led the 2018 Japan Under-20 women's team to the World Junior Championship, took over as the team's head coach. As one of the coaches most familiar with Japan's women's talent pool, Ikeda's appointment has greatly accelerated the rejuvenation of the Japanese women's team.
Japan head coach Tai Ikeda (right) directs from the sidelines on July 31. On the same day, in the Group C match of the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup in Wellington, New Zealand, Japan defeated Spain 4-0. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Qin Lang
Thanks to the accumulation of long-term youth training, the Japanese team of this Women's World Cup has 12 players born after 1998, and the average age of the team is only 24.8 years old. Many members of the World Youth Championship such as Hinata Miyazawa and Riko Ueki provoked the team, and the new "golden generation" of Japanese women's football has begun to take shape.
In the warm-up match last November, Japan Women's lost 4-0 to England Women. Since then, Ikeda has resolutely changed the "433" formation that the Japanese women's football team has used for many years, and fixed the team lineup at "3412". The biggest feature of this 3-centre-back system is that it can change the style of play according to the opponent. When facing a strong team, the team immediately becomes a 5-back. When it is necessary to attack, it can form a high pressing through the numerical advantage in the midfield.
According to Ikeda, the new tactical system aims to maximize the flexibility and teamwork of Japanese players to create a team where players can think, express and react independently on the field.
In this World Cup, Japan can either beat Zambia 5-0 with full control of the game, or give up the ball to beat Spain with a defensive counterattack. "Our players have the ability to detect changes on the pitch and analyse to change the strategy. Ikeda said.
Of course, football does not have a universal victory code, but for any national team, if it also promotes the development of its own professional league, encourages high-level athletes to stay in the ocean, continues to cultivate and discover reserve talents, and builds a tactical system that leverages strengths and avoids weaknesses, the team's competitive level will naturally improve.
This time the World Cup, the Japanese women's football team failed to achieve its goals, but as many Japanese media summarized after the Women's World Cup, the current Japanese team is very close to the champion team in 2011.
As long as you are on the right path, will success be far away? (Contributor: Yang Ting)
Source: Xinhua News Agency