The Korean women’s soccer team, which will participate in the opening FIFA Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand, is busy preparing for the final stage. Colin Bell, head coach of the national team, set the goal of training in this tournament to be physically fit to face opponents with superior physiques.안전사이트
For this, high-intensity ‘hell’ training follows. In addition to strong pressure, a physical strength strengthening program is being implemented to evenly increase the mobility to maintain a constant numerical superiority in space and the speed to create a threatening counterattack.
Even veteran Ji So-yeon (Suwon FC, photo right), the ‘signboard’ of the national team, is training enough to stick out her tongue, but the players themselves are well aware of the need for such training. Ji So-yeon said, “European players are strong and fast,” before the national team training at the Paju National Team Training Center (NFC) on the 3rd, and “All players have a great desire to do it even in the midst of hardship. The atmosphere is also very good,” he said. Through his long experience in Europe, he knows how important it is to overcome physical weakness with physical strength in order to succeed in the World Cup. Ji So-yeon said, “The key is how much we can play (on the ground),” and was satisfied, saying, “Now, little by little (physically) the players seem to be ready.”
Jang Seul-gi (Hyundai Steel, left) also shook her head at the amount of training Bell asked for, but said, “The weather is hot, so players encourage each other more. Thanks to that, (teamwork) seems to have improved.” He continued, “Thanks to the high-intensity training, my physical strength has improved a lot. If your physical strength improves, other factors will naturally follow.”
Until last week, they trained twice in the morning and in the afternoon to help players overcome their physical limits, but from this week, with the tournament about three weeks away, the focus is on raising the overall condition again with training once a day.
Ji So-yeon, a member of the 2015 World Cup in Canada who advanced to the round of 16, recalled the pain of being eliminated in the group stage of the 2019 France tournament by 3 losses, and expressed her determination, saying, “I want to bring better results than in 2019.” Ji So-yeon also said, “I scored a lot of goals, but there are no field goals (in the World Cup). She did not hide her personal goal, saying, “I will be greedy for a great goal in (this) World Cup.”
Seulgi Jang, the defender, said, “My goal is to play clean sheets (no goals) rather than goals. All defenders, including me, will feel that way.” “Compared to 2019, there are more experienced players. There are many good players even at a young age, so I think the performance itself will be different.”
After the final domestic match against Haiti at the Seoul World Cup Stadium on the 8th, the national team confirms the final list of 23 players and goes on a long road to the World Cup.