After experiencing this major defeat, the Chinese women's football team still needs... in addition to recognizing the current situation, facing the gap, and clarifying the path to improvement, children | competition | gap
"We are not particularly good role models. We hope that future children can play more exciting football, and we hope that domestic coaches can cultivate children who can play football, so that they will not be so embarrassed in matches in the future." Wang Shuang choked up after the game.
In the third round of the group stage of the Women's World Cup held on the evening of August 1st Beijing time, the Chinese women's football team suffered a devastating 1-6 defeat to England, creating the largest difference in losing points for the Chinese women's football team in the World Cup and also creating the number of goals conceded by the Chinese women's football team in a single game in the World Cup. The Chinese women's football team won 1 game and lost 2 in the group stage, failing to advance to the group stage for the first time in 8 trips to the Women's World Cup.
The Chinese women's football team has exposed a gap in strength when facing the powerful England team, which shows us that there is still a long way to go for the Chinese women's football team to return to the top tier of the women's football world.
Where is the gap reflected? The gap lies in the execution and understanding of technical and tactical skills: The technical and tactical coordination demonstrated by the English women's football team in matches appears to be more smooth and efficient. Their offensive and defensive transitions are more rapid, and their ability to adapt on the spot is even better. In contrast, the Chinese women's football team has certain deficiencies in implementing tactical plans and understanding tactical layout.
The difference lies in physical fitness and speed: In the game, the physical fitness and speed of the English women's football team also appear to be stronger, whether in dribbling, breakthrough or defensive pursuit, their performance is more advantageous. Just like the second goal conceded by the Chinese women's football team in this game, the England team intercepted in the midfield, and the coordination between the three players advanced from the back to the front, tearing apart the defense of the Chinese women's football team. Hipp did not have an absolute advantage in position before shooting, but she used strong running to leave the Chinese women's football team's defense behind and ultimately easily completed the shot. We have seen that from a devastating 0-8 defeat to Germany at the Athens Olympics, to a devastating 2-8 defeat to the Netherlands at the Tokyo Olympics, and then to a devastating 1-6 defeat to England at the Women's World Cup in Australia. In the era of the "new resounding rose", the Chinese women's football team has always been unable to solve the problem of all-around helplessness and weakness when facing European teams with strong and quasi male football style in key World Series battles.
The gap lies in psychological quality: At critical moments of competition, psychological stress management has a great impact on team performance. The severe qualifying situation requires the Chinese women's football team to score enough goals or even win this game. This also put a heavy burden on the girls in this game, and their physical and technical weaknesses were further expanded. They broke through the defense early and lost hope of victory early. The English women's football team has shown more maturity in this area, as they are better able to cope with the pressure of the game and the adversity in the game.
The gap lies in the competitive level of domestic leagues: Wang Shuang stated after the game that the rapid development of English women's football in the short term is primarily due to the strong Premier League. In contrast, although China's women's football league has made some progress, there is still a lot of room for improvement in overall competitive and operational levels. Compared to their strong rivals in Europe and America, Chinese women's football girls experience very few high-level competitions throughout the year.
The gap also lies in youth development and opportunities: English women's football players have had the opportunity to participate in high-intensity matches and training since childhood, and they have more opportunities to gain experience in clubs around the world. However, the Chinese women's football team faces certain challenges in this regard. From the resumption of large-scale overseas studies to long-term training at various stages, we have seen more Chinese women's football going global. However, even compared to the Japanese women's football team around them, the Chinese women's football team's "overseas legion" is not particularly strong.
In this World Cup, we can still see that the Chinese women's football team has demonstrated their cohesion in the face of strong opponents and adversity in the limited three group stage matches, the spirit of the older generation of Chinese women's football that never gives up and works hard, as well as the shining points of players such as Wang Shuang and Zhang Linyan who have played abroad.
But we should see more clearly that as the champion of the Asian Cup, the gap between China's women's football team and the current world's top tier women's football team is getting bigger and bigger, and such a gap cannot be quickly smoothed out in just one World Cup. After the end of the World Cup journey, the Chinese women's football team also has two important tasks: the Hangzhou Asian Games and the Paris Olympic Games qualifiers. On the road to winning the championship, the Chinese women's football team is destined to be challenged by strong opponents such as Japan and South Korea. In addition to carefully summarizing, recognizing their current situation, and clarifying the path to improvement, the Chinese women's football team needs the continued support and encouragement of everyone on the road to rejuvenation. Only by firmly standing among the top teams in Asia can the resounding rose continuously challenge the world's strong teams.
