On July 21st, the Chinese women's soccer team faced Brazil at the Miyagi Stadium in Sendai to open the Tokyo Olympics with a fierce showdown. This game is of great significance for the Chinese women's soccer team.
The day before the match, the Chinese women's soccer team started their recovery training with only seven hours of rest, mainly indoors with yoga stretching. Three days later, they will welcome their first opponent in the group stage, Brazil.
On July 17, the Chinese women's soccer team departed from the Xianghe base and flew to Tokyo on a chartered Air China flight. Traveling with them were the rowing team, table tennis team and archery team. After arriving at Narita Airport, the four teams finally walked out of the airport after a nucleic acid test and customs clearance.
China's women's football team was the last to walk out of the airport, in the face of an interview with Xinhua News Agency, skipper Jia Xiuquan said the players were hard but in good spirits, "the strict requirements of the epidemic prevention is beneficial to us all, to minimize the risk."
After arriving at the airport, the Chinese women's soccer team took a short break and traveled to Miyagi by bus at 10:00 p.m. The journey took four hours. They chose to go directly to the hotel to check in for the sake of epidemic prevention and safety.
At 2:00 a.m. on the 18th, the Chinese women's soccer team finally arrived in Miyagi. Because Sendai does not have an Olympic village, they can only live in a hotel, chartered a floor, every day food and drink by the hotel exclusively.
China's women's soccer team is in Group F with the Netherlands, Brazil and Zambia, and Jia Xiuquan said that the group stage will go all out to "play at a level that meets our expectations and destroys a resolute victory." Despite the strength of Brazil and the Netherlands, the Chinese team still has a chance to advance.
After the results of the draw grouping came out, Jia Xiuquan had a judgment and carried out targeted training. He believes that the three opponents in the same group represent three types: the Netherlands is a European newcomer, ranked fourth in the world; Brazil is a veteran team with a lot of experience; and Zambia is an African newcomer with outstanding forwards.
Jia Xiuquan said that for the Chinese women's soccer team, every game is a hard battle, and they have to seriously prepare for the game, first to ensure that the group out of the line, and then work toward the long-term goal.
Playing the first two opponents, Brazil and Zambia, both in Miyagi, with enough points to easily travel to Yokohama to face the last and strongest opponent, the Netherlands.
For the past month or so, the Chinese women's soccer team has been training at the Xianghe base, and striker Wang Shanshan revealed that the team has placed more emphasis on the ability to run back and forth during this training session.
It is worth mentioning that on July 15, Chen Xuyuan, chairman of the Football Association, went to Xianghe to visit the team, and he hoped that the girls of the women's football team would believe in themselves and their coaches, and under the leadership of the coaching team, they would travel light, and on the basis of a good epidemic prevention, they would play a good game and make a safe triumph.
Chen Xuyuan didn't mention the target and Jia Xiuquan, too, has been taking the pressure off the team.
The players are actually very relaxed, "To be honest, we don't have much pressure, we just want to do well and fight every game." Wang Shanshan said that she was one of the five people who had participated in the 2016 Olympics, besides her, there were Wu Haiyan, Wang Frost, Yang Man and Wang Yan.
"It's good to play consistently and play at the level you usually train at, and I think it should be fine." Defender Wang Xiaoxue said.
The Chinese women's soccer team's first opponent was Brazil, and the match was held at the 49,000-capacity Miyagi Stadium, although it was played on an empty pitch.
Since 1986, the Chinese women's soccer team and Brazil have played 12 times, with a record of 1 win, 6 draws and 5 losses, and a goal difference of 9 to 22, which is an absolute disadvantage. However, the most recent meeting between the two teams, the two sides drew - the final of the Four Nations Tournament in Yongchuan in November 2019, the two sides exchanged a whitewash in regular time, and the penalty shootout, China 4-2 system win.
In the last Olympics, China and Brazil were also in the same group and also met in the first game, resulting in a 0-3 loss. However, Monica, Andressa and Cristiane, who scored in that game, only Andressa was on the bench, while the other two were not selected.
Regarding the Tokyo Olympics, Jia Xiuquan said that the Chinese women's soccer team is not a spectator or just a participant, "We are competitors and will fight with all our might at the Tokyo Olympics, and we want to fight our opponents." He said, "We have aspirations."
Jia Xiuquan revealed that the women's soccer girls want to take advantage of the stage of the Tokyo Olympics to show themselves, "I expect them to show the technical ability, tactical ability and Chinese spirit of the new generation of women's soccer."
Brazilian women's soccer was once a top team, with three consecutive finals, all runners-up, at the 2004 and 2008 Olympics, and at the 2007 Women's World Cup; they also won the Copa América seven times, and gold at the Pan American Games four times, but have slumped of late, stopping in the round of 16 at both the 2015 and 2019 Women's World Cups.
The women's world tournament was almost halted for eight months last year due to the epidemic, and the Brazilian women's soccer team was severely affected until the end of November, when they resumed world competition. Earlier this year in Orlando, USA, Brazil participated in the She Believe Cup, losing 0-2 to the hosts, the United States, despite victories over Argentina and Canada, and in the Olympic warm-up tournament in June, they defeated Russia 3-0 and were held to a 0-0 draw by Canada, a performance in keeping with their world ranking (NO.7).
The decline in the state of Brazilian women's soccer is directly related to the dismissal of Emily Lima, the first women's coach in Brazilian women's soccer, by the Brazilian Football Confederation (Confederação Brasileira de Fútbol) in 2017, which Brazilian women's soccer players considered unfair, which evolved into a demand for higher pay in the national team, the same as the Brazilian men's soccer team, and also a demand to improve the social recognition of women's soccer players. Eventually, Brazilian women's soccer stars Cristiane, Rosana, and Francelle quit the Brazilian team, causing a furor.
The Brazilian women's soccer team is now in charge of the Swedish Pia, who was the assistant coach of the Chinese women's soccer team in 2007. Back then, the assistant coach, who likes to play the guitar and sing, along with Domanski, left a deep impression on the Chinese women's soccer team.
Since then, Pia has coached the U.S. women's soccer team and the Swedish women's soccer team, and has led the U.S. women's soccer team to get the 2008 and 2012 Olympic gold medals, the 2011 Women's World Cup runners-up, but also three Algarve Cup champions; in addition, Pia has led Sweden to achieve the 2016 Olympic Games silver medal, when they defeated in the semifinals, it is Brazil.
In 2019, Pia took charge of the Brazilian women's soccer team, and due to the epidemic, she only played 20 games with the team, winning 13, drawing 5, and losing 2, for a 65% win rate, which is not as good as when she coached the U.S. women's soccer team. For the Tokyo Olympics, Pia's goal is to at least make it to the quarterfinals and compete for a medal or even gold.
Most of the Brazilian women's soccer team competing in the Olympics this time around are from their home league, with only seven players staying in the country on the 18-player official roster, including defender Jussinara (Levante), forward Ludmila (Atletico Madrid) and Yess da Silva (Real Madrid), who play in La Liga, in addition to 35-year-old team captain Marta, Debinha and 21-year-old youngster Angelina, who plays in the United States.
In addition, the goalkeeper Aline Hayes, who plays in Spain, Leticia Santos, who plays in Germany, Andressa Alves, who plays in Roma, and the striker Giovanna, who plays in Barcelona, are in the list of four substitutes, but they may be added to the list of competitions at any time, which means that half of the 22-member list of the Brazilian women's soccer team is abroad, and they are considered to be the guarantee of the Brazilian women's soccer team's good results. They are considered to be the guarantee for the success of Brazilian women's soccer.
