Chinese Women’s Football Team Working Hard to Catch Up with European Opponents before World Cup

Find out the problem before the World Cup, the Chinese women’s football team catch up with the gap

2023-04-18 10:18:10.0 Source: Xinhuanet
Author: Yue Dongxing

Apply the experience of participating in the European warm-up match to the domestic league, face up to the gap and overcome it. This is the suggestion and request of the Chinese women’s football coach Shui Qingxia to the international players three months before the start of the World Cup.

This month, the Chinese team did show a gap with their opponents in the warm-up matches against Switzerland and Spain. In the two games, one draw and one loss, the main defensive counterattack, the midfielder supported by the double midfielder is still weak, the players are not as good as the opponent in terms of physical confrontation, speed at the feet, and tacit understanding of passing and receiving the ball, which makes it difficult for the team to play layers. The combination of advancement and the combination of side and center created few effective counterattack opportunities, failed to score goals, and was relatively passive overall.

However, in the face of the collective rise of European women’s football in recent years, the Chinese team, which lacks high-level competitions and has few international players who can play the main force in the top league, is working hard to narrow the gap by strengthening technical and tactical details under the leadership of Shui Qingxia.

In the first scene, against the Swiss team, whose world ranking is lower than their own, the Chinese team tried to press from a high position. After losing the ball, they actively counterattacked. The three lines were neat, showing good tactical quality. In the second scene, against the seventh-ranked Spanish team in the world, although the Chinese team was at a disadvantage, in the 31st minute they completed an offensive that tore through the opponent’s defense with only a three-legged pass.

At that time, the Chinese team threw a sideline ball from the backcourt. Zhang Rui, the core midfielder, picked a pass to the frontcourt. Wang Shuang fell to the ground and scored the ball under the pressure of the opponent. Zhang Linyan, the left midfielder, understood the through ball and inserted it obliquely into the penalty area at high speed to complete the goal from a small angle.

There is no doubt that such a concise cooperation is what the Chinese team hopes to play in the World Cup, and it is also an effective means for the weak to defeat the strong under defensive counterattacks. This reflects the counterattack speed and quality emphasized by the coaching staff in their usual training.

Shui Qingxia, who mainly played the 442 formation in the two games, is currently trying different combinations of personnel. In the goalkeeper position, Xu Huan, who attacked decisively, performed steadily in the two games. She and Zhu Yu have their own characteristics. On the defensive line, Wang Linlin, the former captain of the national youth team, started the first game. Yao Wei, a technical player who can play in the midfielder, partnered with Dou Jiaxing in the second game. Wu Haiyan, the backbone of the defense in the previous two World Cups, came off the bench. Looking for the most suitable central defender combination.

In the midfield, the veteran Zhang Rui showed the organizational role of the “10th position”. At the same time, due to the need to protect the defense line, he consumed a lot of physical energy after chasing many times. Yao Lingwei, who is good at playing the midfielder, has a strong overall view and ability to play the ball, and his performance is stable. Zhang Linyan and Wang Shuang on the left and right wings are the most skilled players in the team at this stage, and they have the personal ability to break the partial balance.

Among them, the “post-00” teenager Zhang Linyan who played for the Swiss Grasshopper team is in excellent condition. Her impactful speed and breakthrough, delicate sense of the ball, and confident side cuts show that she is on the rise in her career after being trained in the European League. If she can play in a higher level league in the future, I believe she is expected to achieve greater improvement.

In addition, the returned players have not yet formed a joint force. Li Mengwen, who played for “Paris”, showed the team’s lack of full-back assist ability on the right; Wu Chengshu and Xiao Yuyi, who played in the Australian Women’s Super League last season, did not play this time. Considering that Tang Jiali, who played in the Premier League, and Wang Shanshan, the main striker who did not appear due to injury, are on the bench, there are still many options for the midfield combination. All this indicates that the whole team has a lot of room for improvement in the next three months, and the “strongest team” of the Chinese team is expected to surface before the World Cup.