[Sports News]The Hong Kong women’s football team played an international friendly match with the Thai women’s football team at the Tsing Yi Stadium today (13th). The Hong Kong team, which played at home for the first time in the past four years, lost within a minute of the start, and finally surrendered to the opponent 0:5 under the witness of 685 home and away fans. Although they lost a big game, team captains Chan Wing-sze and Cheung Wai-ki both said that the Hong Kong team changed their previous style of playing from waiting to die and pressed forward in the frontcourt, hoping to win another game in the Asian Games.
Dozens of overseas Chinese from Thailand entered the stadium to cheer, which once made the Tsing Yi Stadium look like Thailand’s home stadium.
The Hong Kong women’s football team, which has had a scandal over its selection earlier, will be training intensively in the next few months to prepare for the Hangzhou Asian Games in September. This afternoon, it will start “shooting” in Tsing Yi and Thailand. However, there is a slight difference between the team list for this friendly match and the final list for the Asian Games. Liang Kuangqiao and Zeng Baitong were not selected, and were replaced by Li Yingxin, Hu Leqi, Zhu Baoen and Zhu Qianjun. The last time the Hong Kong women’s football team played at home was a friendly match against the Philippines at the Tseung Kwan O Stadium in September 2019. At that time, the opponent scored a goal in the 89th minute to draw.
The Hong Kong team uses Wu Wanqi to guard the last hurdle in this battle. The four defensemen are Hu Caiyao, Zhong Beiqi, Ma Zechun and Zhu Sujun; the captain Chan Wing-sze, Su Kailin, Liu Runer, Ho Meiwei and Zeng Liwei support Zhang Weiqi on the front line.
Zeng Liwei was active on the left in the first half. Thai captain Peng Na’an (middle) was cheating, otherwise he would have scored a hat-trick in the first half. Zhu Sujun lost twelve yards.
Facing Thailand, which is ranked 44th in the world and has participated in two World Cup final weeks, the Hong Kong team unexpectedly lost the first game in just over 50 seconds. At that time, Thailand got a free throw more than 30 yards away from the goal on the right. Luo Fang slashed towards the goal. Although the lagging Hong Kong team was obviously inferior to their opponents, they still tried to press in the frontcourt. In 11 minutes, Zhang Weiqi made a cross from the right, but Zeng Liwei, who was far away from the post, was not tall enough to respond.
Thailand then took control of the situation. First, in 17 minutes, Jiehua Bucha single-handedly hit the center post, and then a close-range shot was rescued by Wu Wanqi. Captain Peng Naan also suffered from fraud. The Hong Kong team relied on Zhang Weiqi and Zeng Liwei on the left to try to attack, but they rarely entered the opponent’s penalty area. In the 28th minute, Zhu Sujun from the left gate tripped his opponent, Peng Naan scored a 12-yard shot, Senleike scored another goal 5 minutes later, and Thailand led to 3:0. The Hong Kong team once had a free throw saved by the opponent’s goalkeeper before halftime, but in stoppage time, it was hit by Peng Naan unattended, and fell behind by four goals at halftime.
The Hong Kong team made three changes in the first half, with Li Yingxin, Chen Qixin and goalkeeper Leung Wee Nga as substitutes. In the 55th minute, there was another shot on target, but Zhang Weiqi’s iron shot was caught by the opponent’s goalkeeper. Thailand then pressed the frontcourt again. Liang Weiyafei saved the opponent’s strong shot, and Pu Fangmei fired high against the empty goal and failed to expand the score. In the second half, Liang Weiya flew from left to right and rescued the opponent’s target shots at least three times, including blocking close-range shots with her feet in 90 minutes. In stoppage time, the Hong Kong team had Chen Yinglin hit the target again, but after only 1 minute, Ji Yunda bent into the world wave, and finally lost 0:5.
Guo Ailan burst into tears when thanking the fans after the game.
Liecardo
The coach of the Hong Kong team, Liecardo, said after the game that he had expected this game to be very difficult, but he was still proud of the players’ performance: “The opponent’s possession of the ball is very good, and we haven’t practiced enough, only about 60 to 70% of the state. Usually teams tend to get loose after conceding a goal so early, but they maintained their performance, unfortunately there was one or two errors. I think their performance is already good, but it is true that the last kick needs to be improved.”
There is still more than a month left before the Asian Games, Lie Cardo said that the Hong Kong team will go out for training at the end of the month, revealing that the most likely destination is Vietnam, a Southeast Asian country. The Hong Kong team was drawn into the same group as the Philippines, Myanmar and South Korea in the Asian Games. The Philippines was their opponent in a friendly match four years ago. However, the opponent is not what it used to be, and even entered the Women’s World Cup final week: “We were hoping to catch up with them before the epidemic, but before the epidemic, we lost two years of competition, and the opposing team had more than ten players. Naturalized players are already another team entirely. We are trying our best to catch up the lost time and hope to catch up with Vietnam, Philippines and Chinese Taipei as soon as possible.”
Cheung Wai-ki (right) Chan Wing-sze
The Hong Kong team has not played at home for four years. Although there are only 685 fans in this game, captain Chan Wing-sze is still happy to face the game with local fans: “Before I went out for games, I didn’t hear Cantonese cheering. It’s just my teammates, but today I heard many people in the stands cheering for us, I’m very happy and excited.” But the team ended up losing five goals, and she also admitted that the opponent’s basic skills such as pass control are superior to the Hong Kong team, especially the few kicks. And turning around has been able to tear through the defense, but it is still considered to be the coach’s pre-match deployment: “In the past we sat and waited for death at the back, but today we have pressed up to defend. Even though we have conceded so many goals, we have already lost our strength in the frontcourt Press down and deploy.”
Zhang Weiqi, who also played the whole game, also mentioned that the Hong Kong team has never tried such a home game before: “This time is a new attempt. Although we still lose possession of the ball very quickly, at least the overall physical fitness has not fallen as fast as before. But everyone has only practiced for two weeks, and we must continue to increase our tacit understanding.” Regarding the Asian Games next month, she said that her goal is to play well in every game, “Don’t lose too badly, and you can still win a game.”
Picture and text: Mai Jingzhi
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2023-08-13 11:28:14
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