Approaching the Women's World Cup: Is it a mystery that the Chinese women's football team did not win the warm-up matches? Need to win the game that needs to be won! Group stage | Women's football | Pretend to be mysterious

Editor's note: On July 20th, 2023, the FIFA Women's World Cup will be held in Australia and New Zealand. The Chinese women's football team will debut against Denmark in the group stage on the 22nd, followed by matches against Haiti and England. This Chinese women's football team has a strong "Shanghai color": head coach Shui Qingxia has long coached the Shanghai women's football team, and five international players including Zhang Xin, Zhu Yu, Wang Linlin, Tang Jiali, and Xiao Yuyi are from the Shanghai Rural Commercial Bank women's football team. In addition, overseas Chinese players Yang Lina and Shen Mengyu are also trained by Shanghai.

On the occasion of the "Steel Rose" competing in the World Cup, the Liberation Daily's Shangguan News City Channel and the School of Journalism and Communication at Shanghai Sport University jointly launched the "Approaching the Women's Football World Cup" column, approaching the women's football World Cup with 32 participating teams for the first time, exploring the strength of Shanghai in the "Steel Rose", witnessing the spirit of women's football soldiers facing world strong teams, and experiencing the development trends and latest trends of global women's football.

As the Women's World Cup approaches, many participating teams have held warm-up matches. On July 17th, the Chinese women's football team shook hands and drew 2-2 with Colombia in the final warm-up match before the Women's World Cup. Along with the previous 0-3 loss to Brazil, the Chinese team did not win 1 in their two warm-up matches in Australia. However, if problems are identified and countermeasures are in place, then the purpose of the warm-up competition is achieved.

Opponents have their own requirements: to have a warm-up effect

Warm up matches are an important part of a team's preparation for the World Series, and have almost become a mandatory action for the team before the competition. Of course, choosing what kind of opponent is a team's "voluntary action". Generally speaking, in order to achieve a warm-up effect, it is necessary to select opponents specifically.

In July, the Chinese women's football team held a total of four warm-up matches. The Russian women's football team, ranked 24th, is China's first opponent. After completing their training in Qingdao, the Chinese team played two private warm-up matches against their opponents at home. Considering that there are two European teams and one team with European style in the group stage of the Chinese team, it is best for the Chinese women's football team to find the Russian women's football team as a substitute for the group stage team and conduct targeted warm-up matches. In these two matches, the Chinese team won 1-0 and 2-1 respectively, which not only tested the training effect but also enhanced the confidence of the game.

The Chinese women's football team arrived in Australia on July 7th. Due to the fact that all three group stage matches of the Chinese women's football team were held in Australia, the Chinese team chose Brazil and Colombia, both stationed in Australia, as their warm-up opponents. On July 13th, the Chinese team arrived in Brisbane from their base in Adelaide and played a warm-up match with the world's 8th ranked Brazilian women's football team in three quarters, a total of 90 minutes, and an unlimited number of substitutions. In the end, the Chinese women's football team lost 0-3.

The two matches played by the Chinese team in Australia are "away" matches, and the second match against the Colombia team in Group G will be held in Sydney. There is an Asian team in Group G, the South Korean team, and the Colombian women's football team, ranked 25th, clearly hopes to find the feeling of playing against the South Korean team by playing against the Chinese team.

The Japanese team in Group C is the champion of the 2011 Women's World Cup and currently ranks 11th in the world. The opponents in the group stage are Zambia, Costa Rica and Spain. The Japanese team rushed to the New Zealand division after playing the last warm-up match against Panama at home on Friday. The Japanese team chose Panama, on the one hand, it means to simulate playing Costa Rica; on the other hand, it improves confidence by playing a weaker team. In the end, the Japanese team beat their opponents 5-0. The Spanish team did not dare to underestimate the Japanese team in the same group. They chose Vietnam, which entered the Women's World Cup for the first time, as their warm-up opponent and won 9-0.

Time is exquisite: there must be room for adjustment.

Time is important: there should be room for adjustment

The schedule of warm-up matches is also carefully planned. Simply put, warm-up matches require identifying problems and having time to solve them. In terms of time arrangement, if the warm-up matches are arranged too early, the warm-up effect will not be good, and even the players will show their form too early, which will not be helpful for the official matches. If the warm-up matches are arranged too late, the head coach may not have enough time to adjust the player's form and team lineup.

This time, the Chinese women's football team came to Australia 15 days in advance, mainly to adapt to the local climate and conduct a targeted warm-up match around the "encounter" with the Danish team on the 22nd. Therefore, after the match against the Brazilian women's football team on the 13th and the Colombian women's football team on the 17th, the Chinese women's football team still has four days to adjust and prepare for the match against Denmark, the first opponent in the group stage.

The Chinese women's football team arrived in Australia 15 days early this time, mainly to adapt to the local climate and conduct targeted warm-up matches around the "encounter" with the Danish team on the 22nd. Therefore, after the matches against the Brazilian women's football team on the 13th and the Colombian women's football team on the 17th, the Chinese women's football team still has 4 days to adjust and prepare for the first match against Denmark in the group stage.

Quantity is exquisite: to be able to knead the team

One of the hosts, the Australian women's football team, chose the host team of the previous Women's World Cup, France, for a warm-up match. On July 14th, the Australian women's football team narrowly defeated the last World Cup quarter finals team France 1-0 in Melbourne. It is worth mentioning that 50629 live spectators watched this warm-up match, and it can be foreseen that the box office of this year's Women's World Cup is not much worse.

Quantity is important: it should be able to balance the team

There is actually no fixed number of warm-up matches to play. If a team has many rookies, playing more games can help stabilize the team. Due to the COVID-19, many international football competitions and professional leagues have been affected, and players need certain games to find their status.

For teams in the same group stage, because there are few matches and they are not clear about each other's strength, they are afraid of encountering challenges. Therefore, teams participating in the World Cup need to choose "imaginary opponents" as "doubles" and play warm-up matches with simulated exam characteristics in order to find the winning magic.

Author Introduction:

Also, strong and mature teams will have reservations when playing warm-up matches to prevent all their assets from appearing. It all depends on the head coach's commanding skills.