Some experts commented that Liu Ailing is "the greatest 10th of women's football".
She wore the No. 10 shirt for 15 years on the Chinese women's national football team;
Her two goals against Norway at the 1999 Women's World Cup have been called "textbook classic shots";
She is one of the representative figures of "Sonorous Rose" - Liu Ailing;
When talking about the glory of her youth, she smiled lightly, "In fact, these are all things I should do." ”
Liu Ailing still remembers the care of Coach Shang Ruihua.
The first bloom, the warmth brought by a pair of gloves
Liu Ailing's fate with the Beijing women's football team and the Chinese women's football team dates back to 1985, when she represented the Hubei women's football team for the first time in the National Women's Football Invitational Tournament, when the 18-year-old Liu Ailing's performance in the competition left a deep impression on Beijing women's football coach Shang Ruihua.
Shang Ruihua went to Hubei to find Liu Ailing, hoping to bring this piece of "pu jade" back to the Beijing team.
In the face of Shang Ruihua, who has traveled thousands of miles, Liu Ailing's family has some hesitation, "My family feels that football is a project practiced by boys, and at that time, I was about to graduate from secondary school and had to be assigned a job." At that time, I thought it was better to go to work, because the treatment was good and it was close to home. ”
In the end, Liu Ailing still chose to follow Shang Ruihua to beijing women's football, because "later the teachers and coaches came to do work, and my family and I thought, or ... Go check it out". This decision changed Liu Ailing's fate — without Shang Ruihua, perhaps she would have become a worker at the Hubei Second Automobile Plant. This decision is also the luck of the Chinese women's football team, otherwise there will be no saying in the women's football industry that "those who get Liu Ailing will win the world".
Liu Ailing, who just came to the Beijing team, of course, did not anticipate everything that happened later, and she soon found that she was not very accustomed to the rhythm of the Beijing team, "Before I played football at hubei second automobile sports school, the professional team and the sports school are definitely different, and the Beijing team practiced 3 times a day, and I really felt uncomfortable." And in the team can not go out for a week, only Sunday holidays, Wednesday night can go out to buy something. ”
Liu Ailing has an introverted personality, in Beijing, thousands of miles away from home, she began to miss home, "just thought about giving up, want to go home." Shang Ruihua soon found that the disciple was depressed, Liu Ailing still remembers the care given by the coach at that time, "Every week during the holidays, the teammates all went home, and the Shang guide took me to their house for dinner on Sunday, and also bought me a pair of gloves. ”
The outside world thinks that the conditions of women's football are difficult, Liu Ailing recalled that year but said with a smile: "In fact, it was fine, at that time, I didn't feel how bitter it was, that is, when I went to a foreign training camp in winter, everyone had to rush to take a bath after training - there was not enough hot water." Often the first person just finished washing without hot water, so sometimes we would use the warm water bottle to get hot water back to take a bath. "Taking a bath is just a small episode that she has said, and what she didn't mention too much is that in that era, she and her teammates were fierce to themselves that is unimaginable to today's players, and training with injuries is a routine operation.
It wasn't until she retired that she discovered, "At that time, I didn't pay attention to injuries, and later I felt that the physical damage was really quite large." ”
In the semi-finals of the 1999 Women's World Cup, Liu Ailing was crowned a god.
Furious, two textbook shots
Huang Jianxiang, a famous football commentator, once described Liu Ailing as "the greatest 10th in the history of women's football", and Liu Ailing sometimes showed her son the video of the game of that year, but the little guy did not seem to know that his mother was the pride of Chinese women's football, "He felt that he was better than me." ”
At the 1999 Women's World Cup in the United States, China swept Norway 5-0 in the semi-finals, and it was Liu Ailing's battle: her long pass from the back of her foot created the Chinese team's first goal of that game; then there were the two famous volleys , which were completed with the left and right feet. To this day, those two goals are still called "textbook shots".
Now mentioning those two shots, Liu Ailing's attitude is indifferent, "It's nothing, it's the ball, it's normal." Perhaps in comparison, she was more impressed by another thing - before the World Cup, Liu Ailing's lover instructed her: If she scores a goal, she must make a move in front of the camera, which is a sweet little agreement between the two people. However, "as soon as everyone celebrated, I forgot about it, and then I remembered it after scoring the second goal, and quickly drew a comparison with the camera." ”
The 1999 Women's World Cup was the closest Chinese women's football team was to the top of the world, and behind the runner-up was the hardships encountered by the players. The Chinese team traveled to and from 4 cities in 7 days, traveling more than 5,000 kilometers, and at that time, the players' physical recovery means were single, and the team members could only rely on the team doctor's massage to relieve fatigue.
Liu Ailing recalled: "At that time, we were really on the run, and sometimes when we arrived at the hotel, the room had not yet been vacated, and the team was waiting in the lobby. "The Chinese team is also not used to the Western food provided by the organizing committee, in order to make everyone eat more smoothly, the team staff will sometimes go out to find some pickles and come back." For these, Liu Ailing has always said that "the impact is not great", she is impressed by "wherever we go, there will be local Chinese to visit us, to bring us food, very good for us."
In 2001, Liu Ailing competed in the Us Women's Major League Soccer Tournament. Photo/Osports
Yu Xiang, three times won the best of the American League Week
The glory of 1999 passed quickly, and the "sonorous roses" suffered their first low at the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games, and the Chinese team only finished 5th. Liu Ailing, who played football for 17 years, also had the idea of hanging up her boots at that time, "How to say it, at that time, I felt that I wanted to retire." ”
Life is always full of accidents, at the end of 2000, the United States Women's Football League handed out olive branches to Liu Ailing, Sun Wen, Wen Lirong and other Chinese female football players, and Liu Ailing joined the Philadelphia Stormtroopers of the Major Leagues in the form of a transfer, worth $12,000. The head of the major league repeatedly stressed at the time: "This does not represent their true value, but because we are in the initial stage, we can only pay so much money to the Beijing Urban Construction Club." From Hubei to Beijing, from China to the United States, Liu Ailing has once again left home. Recalling the situation, she said: "I just wanted to prove my worth. ”
In 2001, Liu Ailing shone in the major leagues on the other side of the ocean, scoring 12 goals and being named the "Best Athlete of major league week" three times.
But what left her most impressive was still not the performance in the game, "I am a family lover, and when I first arrived in the United States, I felt uncomfortable. Moreover, in China, it is a collective management system, and when you go there, you have to manage yourself, from renting a house to transportation, all life problems must be solved by yourself. The local Chinese friends helped me a lot, and now that I look back, I still thank them. Only this time, Liu Ailing did not think about giving up like when she first arrived in Beijing, "At that time, she didn't think about giving up, but she felt that she could do it and insist on it to prove herself." ”
In December 2002, Liu Ailing announced her retirement, and the legend of the women's football team came to an end. For a long time after that, she served in the Beijing Football Association. After bidding farewell to the green field, Liu Ailing quickly adapted to her new identity, "No longer as competitive as when she was an athlete, plain is happiness." Do a good job at work, have a happy family, and watch your children grow up healthily. ”
Introduction · Liu Ailing
Birth date: May 2, 1967
Birthplace: Shiyan, Hubei Province
career:
At the age of 20, she was selected for the women's national football team, played more than 140 matches for the Chinese team, and won the 1993 World University Games championship with her teammates;
Runner-up at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics;
1999 FIFA Women's World Cup Runner-up;
In 2001, he joined the Philadelphia Stormtroopers of the Women's Major League Soccer League and was elected "Best Athlete of Major League Week" three times;
At the end of 2002, he officially announced his retirement.
Beijing News reporter Zhou Xiao
Edited by Wang Chunqiu Proofreader Yang Xuli