At 19:00 on June 29, Beijing time, the semifinals of the 2024 FIBA U18 Women's Basketball Asian Cup against South Korea will officially start, and this game will be highly anticipated! Zhang Ziyu, who is 2.24 meters in the Chinese women's basketball U18 team, is undoubtedly the focus of attention of many fans.
Zhang Ziyu said in a recent interview with the media that his net height is about 2.23 meters and 2.24 meters, which is not as tall as 2.28 meters as rumored by the outside world, but Zhang Ziyu after wearing sneakers, his height must be close to 2.28 meters, and the most important thing is that the current Zhang Ziyu is only 17 years old and is still in the process of growing his body, so fans don't have to worry about how tall Zhang Ziyu is at present, her current height must be beyond the reach of players of the same age!
To say that in recent years, the results of the Chinese men's basketball team have fallen to the bottom, and many fans are very disappointed to miss the Olympic Games twice in a row! But fortunately, the players of the Chinese women's basketball team are very powerful, first on the day of the "National Day" in 2022, they won the runner-up in the World Cup, tying the best result in the history of the Chinese women's basketball team! Immediately after the 2023 Asian Cup, he defeated the Japanese team to end the opponent's five consecutive championships and won the Asian Cup championship again after 12 years!
The series of excellent results of the Chinese women's basketball team can be said to have injected a shot in the arm for Chinese basketball! Now in the women's basketball U18 Asian Cup, the young players of the Chinese team once again showed super competitiveness, outscoring their opponents by an average of 32.7 points per game in the group, winning all three games (109-50 Indonesia, 90-68 New Zealand, 97-81 Japan) to advance to the semifinals with the top of the group!
Especially in the third game of the group stage, he defeated the Japanese team by 17 points 97-81, which made fans addicted! Zhang Ziyu, who is more than 2.20 meters tall in the Chinese women's basketball U18 team, has attracted the attention of countless fans with his super dominance at both offensive and defensive ends, making many fans believe that the future of 17-year-old Zhang Ziyu is absolutely promising, and even believe that the Chinese women's basketball team can realize the dream of a world champion in the future!
In the 3 group games that have ended, Zhang Ziyu contributed an average of 33 points per game, which is completely the absolute core of the Chinese women's basketball team U18! Without Zhang Ziyu's super dominance performance, it would be really difficult for the Chinese women's basketball team to win three consecutive victories in the group stage.
Especially in the third game against the Japanese team, as long as Zhang Ziyu is rested, the competition between the Chinese and Japanese teams will be difficult to solve, and even the Chinese team is slightly at a disadvantage, but we have Zhang Ziyu, who is more than 2.20 meters tall, and the whole Japanese team is also very helpless, and many fans feel that we are indeed a bit of a bully...... Competitive sports are like that, if you can't beat it, you can't beat it, and there is no reason for it to be too much.
There may be many fans who seem to see the shadow of Zheng Haixia, the absolute core player of the Chinese women's basketball team, from Zhang Ziyu's body, but it should be pointed out that Zheng Haixia was already the main player of the national team at Zhang Ziyu's age, and helped the Chinese women's basketball team win the bronze medal in the 1984 Olympic Games, but judging from this result, Zhang Ziyu cannot be compared with Zheng Haixia at all.
Although Zhang Ziyu is a completely crushing presence in the U18 age group, she was not selected for the Chinese women's basketball team for the Paris Olympics and has no chance to stand on the stage of the Paris Olympics. Judging from the current situation of Zhang Ziyu, there is still a lot to be done, such as how to effectively avoid injuries, which is very important for Zhang Ziyu, who is more than 2.20 meters tall!
At present, Zhang Ziyu does not know how to jump and shoot, and the biggest reason for doing so is to reduce the damage to his knee. If the current Zhang Ziyu is put in the arena of the adult group, the more high-intensity confrontation may make Zhang Ziyu unbearable, so appropriately increasing the intensity of confrontation is what Zhang Ziyu needs to improve at present.
To sum up, the current Zhang Ziyu is compared with Zheng Haixia of the same age, and there is a big gap in terms of results alone, but it is undeniable that Zhang Ziyu's super talent, soft shooting touch is Zhang Ziyu's most outstanding advantage in addition to height, which is very rare, so we have reason to believe that Zhang Ziyu can reach the height in the future, and there is every hope to catch up with Zheng Haixia or even surpass Zheng Haixia!
Looking forward to the semi-finals on June 29, the focus of the Sino-Korean war is undoubtedly Zhang Ziyu, as long as Zhang Ziyu appears, the Chinese team will definitely completely crush the South Korean team at both ends of the offensive and defensive ends, and it is foreseeable that Zhang Ziyu can definitely explode the whole court again!
As fans, we must not only see Zhang Ziyu's super dominance, but also see if more Chinese team players will stand up for Zhang Ziyu to share more scoring pressure when Zhang Ziyu is at rest, which is even more important!