On September 25, leading the United team to win the Women's National Games soccer crown, Shui Qingxia finally opened her heart and poured out her deepest desires: "After years of soccer, I am eager to show myself in the position of coach of the national team and shine on the world stage." However, she herself is not sure, whether she can take over the women's soccer position, the current women's soccer head coach position is still in suspense.
On August 16, on the eve of the Women's National Games, there were rumors that Shui Qingxia would replace Jia Xiuquan as the new head coach of the women's soccer team. Her first task is to lead the United team to the National Games. However, in an interview with the Shanghai media, Shui Qingxia debunked the rumor, stating that she was only leading the team temporarily and would return to the Shanghai team after the tournament.
In Xi'an, after every game, one of the most frequently asked questions was "whether she would take over the Chinese women's soccer team". Except for the first match, a 1-0 win over Shaanxi, after which she and her players politely declined to be interviewed. But before the tournament was over, Shui could not give a clear answer, so she chose to avoid it, but she no longer resisted other topics about women's soccer.
It is worth mentioning that Shui Qingxia has her own ideas about the women's soccer team's marquee position. As she said after the game, "Everyone has aspirations, after playing soccer for so many years, I expect to be able to coach the national team and show on the world stage. Everyone in a different line of work expects to do their best."
In her playing days, Shui Qingxia represented the Chinese women's soccer team in the Asian Cup, the World Cup and the Olympic Games. 1996 Atlanta Olympics, she took part in all the matches; on behalf of the Shanghai Women's Soccer Team, she won the All-China Championships; in addition, she traveled to Japan twice to play soccer.
After becoming a coach, Shui Qingxia led the Shanghai team to win the championships of the National Games, League, Championship and AFC Cup, realizing a grand slam, and she herself won the honors of the best coach of the League and the best coach of the Championship.
It can be said that Shui Qingxia's coaching career is just about to hang the Chinese women's soccer team.
In 2017, after leading Shanghai to the National Games title, Shui Qingxia was on the shortlist of women's soccer managers for the first time, but she lost out to Icelandic Eyjolfsson, who led the Suning women's soccer team to the AFC Cup title and third place in the league. Eyjolfsson's victory was said to be based on his international experience, as he had led the not-so-strong Icelandic women's soccer team to win the 2011 Algarve Cup and reach the last eight of the 2013 UEFA Europa League, and for this reason Zhang Jian, the head of the soccer association at the time, traveled to Nanjing personally to persuade Suning to release him.
Less than half a year, the poor performance of the Ejorsson class, due to the previous signing of a probationary contract, only two months of salary compensation, Shui Qingxia and Hao Wei, Sun Wen and so on once again become the nominee, but in the end, the Football Association chose Jia Xiuquan.
Although Jia Xiuquan has earned some recognition, his performance at the Tokyo Olympics has undoubtedly brought his coaching career with the Chinese women's soccer team to a close.
Now, the time again in front of the water Qingxia, 55 years old, she does not expect to miss - the Games, is to test the "water".
Regarding the United Team, there is actually not much that Shui Qingxia can do. First of all, the players are still the same players, only due to the injury of Chen Qiaozhu, added Zhong Xiudong; secondly, the time is too tight, from taking over to the game, only three weeks, it is difficult to make a big transformation of the team.
"Haven't had time to do anything yet", "Haven't made too many changes", "Actually, there aren't too many changes"... ...This was Shui Qingxia's reply when she faced questions from the media.
In fact, the biggest problem for the Union team is confidence, with one draw and two losses at the Tokyo Olympics leaving everyone with baggage. "Confidence, let them be more confident, the past should be forgotten as soon as possible, to look forward." After winning the championship, Shui Qingxia this way to explain their "thinking", as for tactics, "the whole thing to talk a little more, expect more to play feet, expect more passing and receiving."
When 20 years of women's soccer coach, although some players in the Olympic list when the outside world feel strange, but water Qingxia "very understand", from Shanghai, she naturally brought, some in the national youth when brought, but also in the league rivals, the past matchups have been studied.
Shui Qingxia didn't reject Jia Xiuquan's use of personnel, and there were no major changes in the attack, even though Umugurira, who was criticized at the Olympics, was given the opportunity to play in the starting lineup in turn with Xiao Yuyi. Changes came from the defense, Wang Shanshan back to play center back, while Li Qingtong did not enter the field for a minute, also hidden from the previous starting goalkeeper Peng Shimeng.
4 games to win the championship, the performance of the United team, in fact, did not win general recognition, in addition to the semi-final 4 ball sweep Beijing, the other 3 games, are 1 ball win, which was once behind the competition against Jiangsu, relying on two set-pieces before reversing the win over Beijing's competition, the outside world questioned there are "cats and dogs". --The opponents changed 7 starters, Ma Xiaoxu, Zhang Linyan did not start, Gu Yasha even did not even enter the list.
But no matter what, the championship got, the deputy director of the General Administration, Vice President of the Football Association Du Zhaocai award, the girls' faces, a long time to smile - with the All-China Gold Medal to heal the Olympic injuries, the effect is good.
A detail about the awarding of prizes is that the players' uniforms have different provinces on them, and Shui Qingxia, too, has the word "Shanghai" on her dress.
On the 26th, the end of the joint team commander mission of water Qingxia, returned to Shanghai, but about her future, is still a mystery, in other words, women's soccer position, is still empty.
After winning the championship on the 25th, in the face of Shui Qingxia, the media asked the most, is still "whether to coach the Chinese women's soccer team?"
At first, Shui Qingxia did not want to reply positively, in the face of "how to arrange the next" question, she played too much, "tomorrow back to Shanghai, the first vacation and rest, and then back to the Shanghai team to play well in the league." And on the 26th, she told me, "first back to Shanghai, 2 training."
The so-called "2-day training" should be October 2 to lead the Shanghai Women's Football Team to prepare for the Women's Super League. This year's Women's Super League has been split into three phases, the first of which is the first 3 rounds, which was already played in May, with Shanghai winning 2 and drawing 1 to finish in second place. Originally, the second stage was scheduled to be played from August 11 to August 27, a total of six rounds of matches, but due to the epidemic postponed, mid-October and then start the war.
As for the women's soccer coach rumors, Shui Qingxia initially said, "To be honest, even I don't know this job, the outside world is just guessing. So there is no need to wait until the day to say it, as a coach or to continue to improve themselves." Some media asked if they are looking forward to coaching the Chinese women's soccer team, Shui Qingxia joked: "I'm looking forward to life. （I don't think so much about the coach (of the Chinese women's soccer team), do you expect me to be? (Reporters responding to expectations) Oh, then I'll fight for it." She added, "You guys give me some help."
But at the end of the day, Shui Qingxia spoke from her heart, "Everyone has aspirations, and after playing soccer for so many years, I expect to be able to coach the national team and show it on the world stage. Everyone expects to do their best in different lines." In her opinion, coaching the Chinese women's soccer team is a kind of honor, "Every coach expects to do some work for the motherland, it's a kind of responsibility, and if it's possible, I expect to take up this responsibility. As a Chinese person should do some work (for the national soccer team)."
This is the first time Shui Qingxia has made a public statement, and now, it's up to the CFA.
It is worth mentioning that after the 25th awards, Du Zhaocai and Shui Qingxia communicated and communicated privately, however, the time was not long and the details are not known.
It should be noted that despite the fact that Shui Qingxia led the team to the National Games, she is not the only one on the women's soccer head coaching shortlist.
The newspaper understands that the top management of the Football Association has also previously approached a strong, young men's coach and asked him if he would like to take over the women's football team and asked him to talk about his views on women's football and what he would like to start from if he took over in the future. The coach had coached in a Chinese Super League team and now works for a local club.
According to the rules of the Football Association, the national head coach is required to bid for the job, that is, there is a fixed procedure, so do not rule out the possibility of this male coach to participate in the competition.
Related to Shui Qingxia, the male coach has not previously entered the women's soccer category, the same as Zhang Haitao, Pei Encai and Jia Xiuquan before him.
The new manager of the women's soccer team, has two major missions for the next year. The first mission is the Women's Asian Cup to be held in India from January 20 to February 6 next year, which is also a qualifying tournament for the 2023 World Cup, but it is not very difficult to make the cut as there are six places in Asia. The last Asian Cup, Ejorsson led the team to perform well in the group stage, but lost 1-3 to Japan in the semifinals, and finally only finished third, in his dismissal, which also became one of the "crime".
The second mission will be the Asian Games held in Hangzhou from September 10 to 25 next year, that year, Jia Xiuquan is to lead the team to win the silver medal in the Asian Games in Jakarta, to obtain the recognition of the Football Association, and then led the team to fight in the World Cup in France and the Tokyo Olympics. This time the home fight, even if you can not win the championship, at least the ranking can not decline.
However, no matter who takes over, it is necessary to face a reality, that is, the strength of the Chinese women's soccer team has long been different from the past, especially the young players did not top.
After winning the Games, Wang Frost posted an article on her personal social media, in which she first affirmed the sense of team honor as well as the sense of responsibility shown by the young players in the team, including the spirit of not giving up or throwing away in difficult moments, but she believed that "team soccer needs spirit, but it is not enough to play only by spirit." She said that many young players need to show more ability to prove themselves.
Having coached in the women's soccer circle for so many years, Shui Qingxia understands more, but she still wants to give more time, "The coaches and players are working very hard, and may have made They may have made many mistakes along the way, but they should be given more time because they still want to run hard. So, each of us should be a little more tolerant, in addition to blame, or give them more applause, just like their own children, after you finish her, you still want her to grow and improve."
