What's the problem? The Chinese women's football team missed the Paris Olympics and lost all three major competitions this year

On the evening of November 1, the final round of the second phase (Group B) of the women's football qualifiers for the Paris Olympics kicked off in Xiamen, and the Chinese women's football team played against the old rival South Korea in the "battle of life and death". In the 61st minute of the game, South Korea's Shen Xuanji scored with a header and took the lead. In the 78th minute, Wang Shanshan also equalized with a header. In the end, the two teams played 1-1, and the Chinese women's football team ranked third in the group, missing the Olympic Games for the second time in team history.

【Difficult arithmetic problems】

Before this round, the Chinese women's football team accumulated 3 points with 1 win and 1 loss, temporarily ranked third in the group.

In the first game, North Korea defeated Thailand 7-0, with 7 points, and the Chinese women's football team, which has only 6 points in theory, has been unable to overtake, and North Korea has locked a place in the final stage of the Olympic preliminaries in advance. Therefore, the Chinese women's football team can only strive to be the second place in the best group of the three groups.

The Chinese women's football team lost to North Korea in its first match

This is also very difficult for the Chinese women's football team. If the Chinese women's football team can defeat South Korea, they will eventually reach 6 points and will compete with Uzbekistan in Group C in the horizontal comparison of second place in the group. In the last round, the Japanese women's football team "released" Uzbekistan and only won 2-0 against the host of Group C, who had a goal difference of -1. In the final round, Uzbekistan faced the weaker Indian women's football team and had a high probability of winning a big victory, thus recovering the disadvantage in goal difference. At present, the goal difference of the Chinese women's football team is 2, and it is obviously an impossible task to win back more goal difference by defeating the strong South Korea by a big score.

Even worse for the Chinese women's football team is that the match between Uzbekistan and India started 25 minutes later than the match between China and South Korea, and Uzbekistan had enough time to get the result they wanted. It can be said that the initiative to qualify is no longer in the hands of the Chinese women's football team.

Group B standings ahead of this game

Of course, the above arithmetic problems are based on the Chinese women's football team's victory over South Korea. When the Chinese women's football team failed to defeat South Korea, the other side of the equal sign immediately returned to zero.

【Lose-lose draw】

Contrary to the men's football team, the Chinese women's football team is the "bitter master" of the South Korean women's football team. The two sides have met 44 times in history, and the Chinese women's football team has an overwhelming advantage of 32 wins, 4 draws and 8 losses.

In the play-offs of the 2021 Tokyo Olympics qualifiers, the Chinese women's football team advanced to the Olympic Games by defeating South Korea, leaving behind the beautiful talk of "the moon falls and the sky is full of 'frost', and the city of Gusu is 3:4". In last year's Asian Cup final, the Chinese women's football team "let two chase three" and beat the South Korean women's football team in stoppage time, once again reaching the top of Asian women's football after 16 years.

In this back-to-back battle, Shui Qingxia sent Wu Chengshu and Wuri Gumula to start with two forwards, Zhang Linyan and Liu Yanqiu on the wings, and Wang Shanshan still served as the central defender.

Less than a minute into the game, Zhang Rui's low shot went just wide of the post. In the 21st minute, Wu Chengshu's header was ferried, and Uzhgumula volleyed the ball in front of the goal, but Wu Chengshu, who was competing for the top, was offside, and the goal was invalid.

Before the end of the half, the Chinese women's football team, which had been unable to attack for a long time, almost lost the ball, Cathy Fell broke through the cross, Chi Xiaoran shot low to the outside of the neutral post, the ball popped off the bottom line, and the Chinese women's football team escaped. The Chinese women's football team played aggressively and fiercely in the first half, threatening the South Korean goal many times, and played the best half of several tough games this year, but unfortunately it was missing a goal.

Yibian fought again, Shen Mengyu replaced Wuri Gumula, Yan Jinjin replaced Liu Yanqiu, but the previously passive South Korean women's football team took advantage of the free kick opportunity to score first. In the 61st minute, Ji Xiaoran took a free kick in front of the court, and Shen Xuanji scored with a header, the South Korean women's football team led 1-0, and the Chinese women's football team fell into a desperate situation.

In the subsequent game, the Chinese women's football team also relied on set-pieces to create a killing opportunity, Yao Wei hit the goal with two consecutive kicks, and the South Korean team was in chaos in front of the goal.

In the 78th minute, Wang Shanshan, who was pushed to the forward position after Wang Linlin came on as a substitute, stood up again at a critical moment! Yan Jinjin took a free kick in the front court, the South Korean team's defense team collectively leaked, Wang Shanshan scored the ball with a header, and the score was 1-1!

In the 84th minute, Yan Jinjin missed a good opportunity to overtake, Wang Yanwen went straight to the right side, and Yan Jinjin's single ball was kicked off. If this goal is scored, the Chinese women's football team may be able to escape.

The two teams did not make any achievements, and finally ended in a 1-1 draw, and the Chinese women's football team only finished third in the group, missed the group qualification, and missed the Paris Olympics. Whether the North Korean women's football team can become the second place in the group with the best results depends on the results of the Uzbekistan team after that.

【Unsolvable Problem】

After this game, the Chinese women's football team did not meet expectations in the three major competitions it participated in this year, and it can be said that all of them ended in failure.

The Chinese women's football team lost to England and was out of the World Cup group stage

First of all, in the Women's World Cup, Denmark was defeated in the first game, and the second game was a difficult victory over Haiti, but in the last game it was defeated by England 1-6, and it failed to qualify from the group for the first time since participating in the World Cup.

In the recent Hangzhou Asian Games, the Chinese women's football team, which aims for a gold medal, won a series of big games in the group stage, but lost 3-4 in the semifinals against the Japanese "second team" and missed the chance to win the gold at home. You must know that the average starting age of this Japanese "second team" is only 21 years old, and only one person has participated in this year's Women's World Cup.

After losing to Japan in the Asian Games, Xu Huan cried sadly

Coupled with the fact that the Paris Olympics were missed this time, people can't help but ask: What happened to the Chinese women's football team that won the Asian Cup last year? If we talk about the painful defeat in the World Cup, we clearly understand the huge gap between us and the world's top teams. The last two defeats in Asian competitions show that the Chinese women's football team has been excluded from the ranks of Asia's top teams. In the face of the rapid development of the world women's football wave, the Chinese women's football team is lost.

The offensive end does not have its own distinctive characteristics, does not see mature routines, and lacks skills in sports battles; The defensive end is also no longer solid, and in several tough battles this year, the goal is conceded too quickly and easily, and then it is penetrated by the opponent's quick counterattack; On the whole, the Chinese women's football team has never been able to find its strongest lineup, and has never been able to give full play to its full combat effectiveness, and has been slumped in several key issues such as whether star players such as Wang Shuang and Zhang Linyan start or substitute, whether Wang Shanshan plays forward or defender, and the use of foreign players, and the choice of employment has been repeatedly questioned by the outside world.

Chinese women's football coach Shui Qingxia

"I've always had a question, we train more and work harder than any other national team, why can't we get the results we want?"

After being eliminated in the Women's World Cup, Wang Shuang once threw out such a question. The spiritual quality of "sonorous roses" that do not give up and do not give up has been the magic weapon for us to defeat the enemy, but spiritual strength always has its limitations, and hard power in competitive sports is always a decisive factor. When European and American teams "feed" women's football through men's football, achieve rapid "evolution", and play style is becoming more and more "men's football", the first-mover advantage of the Chinese women's football team has long been exhausted, and the traditional talent training system is difficult to match it.

Wang Shuang's question remains unanswered

Hard training is important, but which of the female footballers who have stepped onto the high-level arena has not gone through hard training? Finding the right direction of efforts is probably the most important thing for the Chinese women's football team to consider at this stage.

Before the game, when the women's football girls stepped on the field, the scene was playing "Sunshine in the Cracks", "When the night turns over, it will be a new day...", after the wind and rain, the "sonorous rose" will bloom again.

Poster News Editor: Ma Hongzhen Produced by Grandstand Studio