China's women footballers prepare for Olympic warm-ups

(BEIJING, June 18) -- As reported by Shenyang Daily, China women's football team is currently in the process of the first-stage Olympic-oriented training, with the coming two weeks scheduled for enhanced physical training. But July will see Team China busy with six warm-up matches in a total of 24 days. These matches are to be played for gearing China up for the Olympic Games that is just around the corner.

Training schedules will be mainly targeted for the fierce competition that Team China expects to encounter in August and mainly feature on defensive skills. In preparing for the first match against Sweden, forwards on Team China are now training for the closing down and ball-recapturing skills, which usually prove highly effective in women's football. But whether such tactics will eventually work for Team China are still to be further tested by the July warm-ups.

According to Gao Rong-ming, assistant coach of China women's football team, the current training will comprise of physical strength enhancement, defensive skills and attacking skills, each accounting for approximately one third of the total training amount.

There are currently six warm-up matches on the agenda of Team China against four overseas counterparts, with the earliest two matches set in Tian Jin against Australia on July 20 and 23. July 16 and 20 will witness China's women footballers fighting New Zealand, while competition against Nigeria, the African champion, is set for July 27. The warm-up series will conclude with a match against the USA on July 30.