Live Bar, September 14 -2022 Women’s Basketball World Cup will be held in Sydney, Australia on September 22. The same group of Chinese team in Group A is the United States, Belgium, South Korea, BiH and Puerto Rico. Four teams in each AB group will advance to the quarter-finals.
Recently, Zheng Wei, the coach of China women’s basketball, was interviewed by the media online.
Zheng Wei: Hello, teachers. I am very happy to connect with you here. After all, it has been more than a month since the beginning of August. Now we have just entered the competition area Australia two days ago, preparing for the final sprint stage. I am very happy to communicate with you during this period, we started to concentrate on May 20. Everyone knows that our qualifier in Serbia encountered great difficulties in returning home. Our training time was relatively long and the isolation time was relatively long, the longest team member was isolated for about 80 days, so it took us about a month to recover our physical condition and train our personal skills, but the real running-in, the training time was about more than two months, and we set off to Europe to prepare for the rally. Now because of the epidemic, the domestic cannot solve problems while finding problems. Therefore, we finally decided to visit Europe for training two months after the training, we have played eight games so far. I think every game is a good test process for us. We have found many problems in this process, we practice while playing. The current situation is getting better and better. In addition, Xiao Bao and Han Xu also returned to the team recently. At present, their training match with the team is not long, but our team is running in. So far, eight games have been played. Xiao Bao (Li Yuelu) and Han Xu have only played two games with the team, therefore, I think the running-in of the whole team needs to be further, but their mental outlook and overall situation are the overall situation of the team, It should be said that they are all very good. Although we have encountered some difficulties, namely training, running-in and injuries, I think we are now entering the final sprint and gradually heading for the right track.
Reporter: Please introduce Han Xu and Xiao Bao about their competition and training running-in after they return to the team. What is our goal of women’s basketball this time?
Zheng Wei: First of all, because of the two of them, they also overcame many difficulties after returning to the team. After all, they also experienced fatigue and injuries after playing in WNBA for a season, so they all overcame a lot. At the end, they rushed to Serbia to join the team. Their mental outlook, training attitude and their expectations for the game are very high. I think this is a great help to the team, after all, we are running in for about ten days now. We may have played two games. It should be said that it will take a little time. The more tacit understanding that can cooperate with everyone will take some time, after all, the team has also made some adjustments, whether in terms of personnel and tactics, so they are also familiar with and understanding. Now I think the outside world has an affirmation for China’s women’s basketball. This is something we are happy about. After all, our efforts have been recognized by everyone, but we need to keep a very clear mind. We still put ourselves in a position based on the fight and the fight, and we need to prepare more difficulties. In fact, the World Cup is once every four years, since the World Cup started on the 22nd, eight teams have entered the competition area so far. From what we have seen, the lineup of each team is very complete, and it is well prepared, so I think everyone is well prepared, or put themselves in the position of fighting, china women’s basketball will definitely finish this competition with the best mental outlook and state.
Reporter: This is your first time coaching the world competition. What preparations have you made and what expectations have you made?
Zheng Wei: It’s not the first time. I think it should be the first time in FIFA World Cup qualification, and this should be the second time. However, ten years of national teams have participated in many competitions, so the understanding of teams and opponents should accumulate a lot. I hope I can give more help to the team. First of all, we should first do ourselves well and solve some technical problems existing in the Tokyo Olympic Games and the Asian Cup. In addition, we are making some adjustments according to the existing personnel at this stage, to give full play to the advantages of our Asian players, the other is that everyone in the team has their own characteristics. Especially in the aspect of attack, we must know everyone’s personal characteristics, I think I have done a lot of work in this aspect to give full play to everyone’s personal expertise. Then there are the opponents of that group, such as BiH, South Korea, Belgium, except the United States, we have done a lot of targeted training.
Reporter: In the face of this high expectation from the outside world, how does our team do this psychological construction so that the team members can maintain a relatively stable state, including some challenges we encountered in the preparation process, how did we overcome them?
Zheng Wei: First of all, we are very happy to be recognized by everyone and keep a calm mind at the same time, after all, we haven’t hit the top four in any competition yet. I think the first thing we should do is to straighten our position. I also often tell the team members that no matter what the outside world says, we must recognize ourselves clearly, especially when preparing for difficulties, after all, the World Cup is once every four years. Every team will cherish this opportunity, so I think we should study our opponents in a targeted way while doing ourselves well, so that we can beat each other’s weaknesses with our own strengths, I hope I can play the best level.
Reporter: You also mentioned that Xiao Bao and Han Xu played two games in this early stage, and they are still running in with their teammates, how do you feel that you can improve the degree of running-in between them and other players in a short period of time?
Zheng Wei: First of all, they have been in the team all the time, so they know more about the whole. Of course, after going out for a season, I think they are both in mentality, especially in terms of self-confidence, we have improved a lot. After coming back, that is to say, we have also added many new tactics such as defense and attack, which have been adjusted, however, the time is still relatively short, so judging from the training and competition, it has not reached a very tacit understanding yet. In addition, when the two of them came back in WNBA for a season, they had a hard journey and some minor injuries. They were also overcoming difficulties. While they were recuperating injuries, we also had to keep training, we also need to communicate and communicate with you, so in this respect, we hope that there will be about ten days, so I think we should strive for better running-in.