Chinese women s football team vs. Korean women s football team preview, Kung Rose focuses on growth, injury troubles the host

On July 9, the Chinese women's football team will usher in the first appearance of the East Asian Football Federation E-1 Football Championship (East Asian Cup), against the host team of this cup, the Korean Women's Football Team. Since the Chinese women's football team has now entered a stage of alternating between old and new, coach Milicic did not mention too much about the goal of rushing to the championship, but emphasized more about the team's progress expectations: "We hope to see the team's game style improve, integrate the training content into the arena, and show it in this event. At the same time, we focus on preparations for the Asian Cup, so as to screen out players who can face other strong teams at the international level." In this cup, although Wang Shuang, Tang Jiali, Zhang Linyan, Yao Wei, Wu Haiyan, Zhang Xin and other 2022 Asian Cup champion members are still in the team, but newcomers such as Song Duan, Sun Fangxin, and Lu Yatong are also selected for the roster. Confronting Asian strong teams such as Japan and South Korea is a rare opportunity for young players to grow rapidly; for the entire team, it is an opportunity to adapt to high-intensity confrontation and enhance the ability to interpret the game situation.

In contrast, the host of the event, the Korean women's football team, has performed well recently. In the past 6 games, the Korean women's football team has achieved an unbeaten record of 3 wins and 3 draws. What's even more difficult is that such performance is accomplished against the backdrop of the team's alternation between old and new. In order to deal with the 2027 Women's World Cup and the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, head coach Shin Sang, who took office last year, accelerated the team's metabolism. In this East Asian Cup, there were as many as 8 players in the Korean women's football team under the age of 23, and the average age of the whole team has also dropped to 25.5 years old.

However, the Korean women's football team participating in this East Asian Cup also has problems. The team's absolute main players Choi Yoo-ri and Lee Yong-joo were both injured. Kim Jin-hee and Park Soo-jung also directly withdrew from the roster due to injuries. It remains to be seen and verified whether the recruited newcomers can shoulder the heavy responsibility.

In terms of the experience of the two sides, the Chinese women's football team and the Korean women's football team have been thrilling in recent years, and the most exciting and intense ones are the Tokyo Olympic qualifiers play-offs and the 2022 Asian Cup finals. In the 2020 Tokyo Olympic qualifiers playoff, the Chinese women's football team won 2-1 away in the first leg, and withstood the opponent's attack in the second leg, drew 2-2 with a total score, thus eliminating the Korean women's football team into the Tokyo Olympics 4-3. In the 2022 Asian Cup final, the Chinese women's football team made a shocking reversal. When they were 0-2 behind the Korean women's football team, they scored 2 goals in the second half and scored the winning goal in overtime, thus winning the championship 3-2, and returned to the top of Asia after 16 years. The latest competition between the two sides happened in the preliminary round of the Paris Olympics. The two teams tied 1-1 at the time, and both of them lost the qualification to advance. In the history of the East Asian Cup, the two teams have also faced three matches, with both sides winning one game and having one draw in a balanced position.