“Hair with high intensity!”
The Korean women’s soccer team, led by head coach Colin Bell, trained in a bright atmosphere at the Campbelltown Sports Stadium outside Sydney, Australia on the 22nd, three days before the Group H group stage match against Colombia.
The national team, which started adaptation training in Australia on the 11th, moved to the Campbelltown Sports Stadium on the 20th and began its final hardening. Coach Bell arrived earlier than the players and warmed up first by running on the ground at high speed. Lee Ji-an, team manager of the Korea Football Association (KFA) women’s national soccer team, said, “From Paju, I warmed up first at the training course before training every time.” As a leader who has ordered ‘high-intensity’ training for players, it was impressive to see him take the lead. He has been preparing for this World Cup with a warrior attitude.
After the players got off the team bus and entered the training ground, shrugged their shoulders and shouted “fighting!”, the official training began. On this day, he said he would focus on defensive tactics. Colin Bellho’s trademark, high strength, continued in Australia. Coach Bell, who was watching the players wearing blue and green vests doing intensive passing drills in one minute each to warm up, exclaimed in Korean, “Head to high intensity!” As usual, he emphasized the speed of ‘smart thinking’. Then, they were divided into two groups, the ‘Bell coach team’ and the ‘Matt Ross head coach team’, focusing on defensive practice in which the attackers press forward and the defenders release pressure.
The atmosphere on the field of the national team three days before the final match was full of confidence rather than tension. Voices shouting “Ji! Ji!” (Ji So-yeon) and “Sister!” resonated across the ground. The energy of victory overflowed throughout the training ground. The billboard banners surrounding the training ground were filled with cheering phrases sent by fans through social media. The players of the women’s soccer team ran and ran with the support of the fans on their backs. Next to the large Taegeukgi in the center of the stands, they hung up a photo cheering hotly in the locker room after a big victory over Zambia, raising the ‘spirit of victory’. In the last two World Cups, Korea struggled against strong players such as Brazil and France in the first game. This time, the matchup is different. This is why the first step is more important than ever. Coach Bell also focused only on the Colombian law from the last call-up training at Paju NFC last month. It was clear that he would “play one game, one game, step by step.
“
Colombia is ranked 25th in the FIFA rankings, but it is an opponent that can never be ignored. It is a team that combines speed, physicality, and new structure. In the 2022 Women’s Copa America, they defeated Argentina 3-1 to advance to the final and lost to Brazil 0-1 to finish runner-up. Following 2011 and 2015, this is the third World Cup challenge. They recorded 1 win, 2 draws and 4 losses in 7 matches. I reached the round of 16 at the 2015 Canadian tournament, and I couldn’t compete at the last French tournament. In particular, the growth of young players under the age of 17 and under the age of 20 is noticeable. Linda Caicedo, a ‘sacred star born in 2005’, who is active in Real Madrid, received the Golden Ball (Best Player Award) despite finishing runner-up in the tournament, and FIFA also ranked ‘female Neymar’ Caicedo as one of the top 10 rising stars in each country ahead of this World Cup.토토사이트
The 2023 FIFA Australia-New Zealand Women’s World Cup, which kicked off on the 20th, has been a series of surprises from the start. In women’s soccer, rankings are not numbers. It is difficult to predict the performance of African and Asian countries, which rarely play A matches other than continental qualifiers. Even so, the skill gap has narrowed significantly. New Zealand (26th in FIFA), the host country, beat Norway (12th in FIFA), a powerhouse in Northern Europe, in the opening game, and Nigeria (40th in FIFA) drew 0-0 with Canada, ranked 7th in FIFA. The Korean women’s national team is aiming for the first round of 16 in nine years since the 2015 Canadian tournament, or even higher. At the launching ceremony right after the game against Haiti on the 8th, “Ace” Ji So-yeon said, “I didn’t expect Morocco to make it to the semifinals in the Men’s World Cup. There are always teams that cause surprises in major tournaments, and I hope that Korea will become that kind of team this time.” Under the sky of Campbelltown in July, a woman’s football fan’s manifesto, ‘A high intensity, reach a high and strong place at the end’ came into view at a glance.