Source: Wall Street Journal

Author: chun han wong

In 1999, the Chinese women's football team reached the Women's Football World Cup final, but lost to the US team during the penalty shootout.American women's football team, Brandi Chastain, took off the jersey at the time, and only slipped the lawn to celebrate the victory with the sporty chest, becoming one of the most iconic moments in the women's football industry.Later, the Chinese women's football team fell into 20 years of frustration.

Now, the Chinese women's football team is fighting this World Cup this year, hoping to take a step back to the first -class strong team.Last year, the "铿 Rose" won the championship at the Asian Cup of Women's Football team. This was the first time they won the regional championship in 16 years.At present, the Chinese team ranks 14th, the best ranking in the past seven years.Chinese officials regard this World Cup as a bunchboard that has achieved greater success in the 1930s.

Inside the Chinese team, the expectations are not so high.The head coach Shui Qingxia holds a more reserved attitude of the Chinese team's qualifying in the World Cup group stage. The opponents of the group stage include European champion England, Denmark and Haiti.

Shui Qingxia said that it is a challenge for the Chinese team, and it must be difficult, because compared with the European teams, the Chinese team has a great gap in training and ability.She said that it was the most important thing to know if it was difficult and not complaining.The Chinese women's football team where the Atlanta Olympic Games was in 1996 won the silver medal.

The first game of the Chinese team lost the ball in the last few minutes and lost to Denmark 0-1.Prior to the popular England team, one of the most popular match next Tuesday, "铿 Rose" will play against the Sea -land team on Friday. This is a match that must be won.

Theoretically, the Chinese team's strength has taken another step.The Chinese Women's Football Team's World Cup has a record of six overseas players. They face more intense competition in the National Women's Football League and other stadiums.

These overseas players include striker Wang Shuang. She scored five goals at the Asian Cup in 2022 to help the Chinese team win the championship.Wang Shuang, 28, has been rated as the best women's football player of the year in Asia, known as "female Messi" by Chinese fans, and is now playing for the National Women's Football League Louisville Atletico Club.

Zhang Linyan, a 22 -year -old midfielder who played for the Zurich Shicao Club Club, won the Swiss Women's League Best Player Award last season. The Chinese team also looks forward to her outstanding performance.

Many Chinese fans regard "铿 Rose" as proud, and in comparison, the Chinese men's football has always achieved poor results.The Chinese women's football team has won nine Asian Cup championships and a runner -up of the World Cup, but the men's football team has never won the Asian Cup championship. It only won the World Cup qualification in 2002. It is currently ranked 79th in the world.

Although Chinese leaders who claim to be foot fans have launched ambitious reforms in 2015 to make China a strong football country, men's football is still mediocre.In recent years, a large amount of funds have poured into men's football, which has promoted the rise in the salary and transfer fees of players.But the foam has been shattered, some teams go bankrupt, and some well -known football people have been detained by anti -corruption agencies.

In October last year, the Chinese government announced a comprehensive reform of women's football aim to restore China's strength in this international competition.These include promising to establish more youth development centers at home and abroad, and sending 100 promising women's football players to overseas training each year.

Tom Byer, a youth football development consultant who helped the Chinese government formulate grass -roots training programs, said: "The women's football is their hope and dream." He said that this is a way to reduce stress that allows people to not pay attention to the past.The failure of several years, especially when the men's football team did not meet people's expectations.

According to the plan, China strives to achieve the top three results at the Women's Football World Cup and Olympic Games in the early 1930s.For this year's Women's Football World Cup, officials set a relatively low -key but still challenging goal: enter the quarter -finals.

Historians believe that the history of the Chinese women's football team dates back to the 1920s, when some schools set up women's football teams and arranged games.However, in the following decades, conflict and political turmoil hindered the development of Chinese women's football. Until the late 1970s, as China began to recover from the destruction caused by Mao Zedong's repeated rule.Essence

The revival of the school level quickly led to the establishment of the National Women's Football Team in December 1983.Soon after, the team won its first trophy in 1986 -the Asian Women's Football Championship.

shortly after the start of the Chinese women's football movement, it soon became a pioneer force.In 1988, China organized a Women's Football International Championship. 12 teams participated. The test of the Women's Football World Cup was tested. Later, the FIFA awarded the right of the first Women's World Cup event to China.

At that time, it was a challenge to raise funds for the first women's football World Cup.The Chinese government instructed the organizers to raise funds from the public.Fund comes from sports lottery and souvenir sales, art performances, auctions, donations and sponsorship.According to Chinese media reports, Hong Kong tycoon Huo Yingdong played a key role, and he invested in construction and renovating stadiums.

The then FIFA Chairman Joao Havelange and Brazilian star Pele attended the opening ceremony of the first Women's Football World Cup.This World Cup competition was held in Guangdong Province in South China. The Chinese team in the home battle reached the quarter -finals, but lost to the Swedish team.

The Chinese women's football team once dominated the Asian field, winning the Asian Cup seven consecutive times from 1986 to 1999.However, in the first ten years of this century, the Chinese team encountered more intense competition.In 2011, the Japanese team became the first Asian team to win the Women's World Cup championship, creating history, and the Chinese team failed to qualify for the competition.Researchers at East China Normal University pointed out in a papers in 2013 that Japan has surpassed China through the establishment of a sound women's football training and development system for a long time.

Today's Chinese Women's Football National Team still rely on national -led procedures to discover and cultivate talents.Young players are selected through competitive competitions, large -scale trials and training camps to form regions and national youth teams of different ages.

The strength of the Chinese women's football team has improved, but there are signs that the Chinese women's football team has not yet entered the first -class strong team.Among the four international friendly matches with the European team earlier this year, the Chinese team lost two draws and scored only one goal in total.In the two warm-up matches with the Russian team this month, the Chinese team's performance was slightly better, defeating the Russian team with a score of 1-0 and 2-1, respectively; in order not to leak tactics, these two games were not made public;Russia's international ranking is 10th than the Chinese team.

Zhang Linyan participated in a game between the Chinese team and the Swedish team in February this year. The Chinese team defeated 1-4. She said to the Chinese official media after the game: "I used to think that the women's football team has always been those who have been the strong women's team.But now it is completely different. "Zhang Linyan said:" Even the American women's football no longer has the absolute advantage of the previous. "

As Chinese fans cheered for the "Rose Rose" team, many Chinese women's team members lacked personal popularity.China Dairy Giant Illi Group recently launched an advertising event called fans to remember the names of women's football players.The company has hired some outstanding Chinese women's football players as brand spokespersons.

"When the women's football team is vigorous, the nominal name is ... who is that," Illi posted on social media."The name of the women's football is worth remembering."