The semifinals of the U18 Women's Basketball Asian Cup between the Chinese women's basketball team and the South Korean women's basketball team will be held in the evening, for the Chinese women's basketball team, it should not be a problem to win this game, because the overall strength of the South Korean team is not particularly strong, they previously defeated the New Zealand team in the semi-final play-offs, don't look at the final score, the South Korean team won by 20 points, but all these 20 points were won in the first quarter. In the first quarter, New Zealand made a lot of mistakes, while South Korea had a surprisingly accurate mid-range rate. In fact, the two sides played a five-five game in the next three quarters, and no one was able to win anyone, the overall level of the South Korean team is not much stronger than that of the New Zealand team, it is nothing more than a higher accuracy rate on the outside, and if you compare the physical condition alone, it is even inferior to the New Zealand women's basketball team. Therefore, for the Chinese women's basketball team, winning South Korea to enter the final must be a high-probability event.
But our goal is not just to reach the final, and now that we have Zhang Ziyu, we are very hopeful that we can regain the Asian title. Last time we didn't stand a chance against Australia, this time we want to get back to the top of Asia. Our senior women's basketball team knocked Japan off the Asian throne last year. It's been 12 years since we've won the championship again, and this time our little girl really wants to be able to do that, so beating South Korea isn't the only goal we want to do in this game, it's also important to stay healthy.
Why the emphasis on staying healthy? Because our opponent is the South Korean team. Korean sports can be said to be well-known and even notorious in the international sports arena. One is to take advantage of the home field and use the referee, which everyone must know very well. For example, the 1988 Seoul Olympics, the 2002 Korea-Japan World Cup, and the subsequent Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, everyone saw these games very clearly and knew the role of referees in this Korean sport, but considering that this time it was held in China, and it was a youth competition, so the possibility of referees cheating in it is almost non-existent.
The second point that needs to be beware of the Korean team is small movements, especially in the basketball field, their bottom three moves are very powerful, be careful that the Korean team injures our players, especially Zhang Ziyu. If Zhang Ziyu is injured, with the current level of the Chinese women's basketball team and other players, it is very difficult to win the championship in the finals, and it just gives the South Korean team such an opportunity.
Because Zhang Ziyu is relatively tall, once she wants to use some small moves behind her back, it is difficult for the referee to see it, because her figure is indeed too tall, so the Chinese women's basketball team is actually not afraid to go around the front defense. Because the defense around the front cannot make this kind of action in the lower three ways, on the contrary, defending behind the back is often prone to such a situation.
In an interview before the start of the game, the head coach of the South Korean women's basketball team had already said that in the face of Zhang Ziyu of the Chinese team, the players need to close their hands and feet tightly so that they can defend effectively. Of course, this is a very basic basketball action, but if you add some other things on top of this, I am afraid it will be very troublesome for Zhang Ziyu, after all, she is also competing in an international competition for the first time, and she must not have experienced the dirtiness of Korean sports. Therefore, I hope that the Chinese women's basketball team must be fully prepared, once such signs are found, they must put pressure on the referee in time, even if they eat technical fouls, and let these small actions of the South Korean team not hurt our players.