Evergrande Football School is one of the few "legacies" left by the dilapidated Evergrande Group to China, and now the football school has already begun to pay for its own profits and losses, walking into the third floor of the football school office building, you can often see a familiar figure holding a laptop and a stack of materials hurriedly skimmed. Her name is Gao Hong, who was once the sonorous rose of the Chinese women's football team, and was the main goalkeeper who helped the women's football team win the World Asian Games in 1999Now she has not entered the official career like Liu Ailing and Sun Wen, nor has she become a coach like Shui Qingxia and Wen Lirong, but has taken root in youth training to find the answer to the next generation of Chinese football.
Today's Evergrande Football School is still there, largely thanks to two female players, one is Liu Qian, the principal of the football school, and the other is Gao Hong, who is the director of competition training.
Liu Qian commented on Gao Hong: "I often describe her as a person with a 'professional cleanliness', who does not eat, drink or sleep for football." This style of work is very much in line with the characteristics of the football school, we are all desperate to fight, break through, and do for the goal in our hearts. ”Gao Hong is a name that is enough to make a generation of Chinese fans proud, but the beginning of her football career is the "number of numbers".
On November 27, 1967, Gao Hong was born in Taixing City, Jiangsu Province, but she did not grow into a graceful Jiangnan woman, but followed her grandmother in the cold wind of Hohhot since she was a child.
At the age of 18, her grandmother entered the second wool textile factory in Hohhot as a laboratory technician, and the story has nothing to do with football or sports, we only see a female worker who gave up her studies prematurely and entered the factory under the torrent of the times, and her future experience may be the same as that generation of female workers, dedicating all her value in the workshop of the state-owned factory, and then waiting for retirement.
At that time, Gao Hong's only sports experience was as a member of the women's basketball team of the textile factory, and football was in the ascendant in China in the 80s.
The football memory of the legendary goalkeeper of the Chinese women's football team has been opened.
At this time, she is not a goalkeeper in any position on the field.
A player who only started football at the age of 18 would not become a national team or even a world-class star no matter what, according to today's eyes, but Gao Hong did it.
From the textile factory women's football team to the Inner Mongolia women's football team, due to the injury of the goalkeeper in the team, Gao Hong was temporarily hired by the coach to be the goalkeeper, and the coach said to her: "You have practiced basketball, and the goalkeeper can also use his hands, no problem!" ”
In the subsequent women's football championship, Gao Hong even saved three penalties in the penalty shootout, helping Inner Mongolia win the first victory of the national competition. Then she went to the Shaanxi women's football team, and from this time on, Gao Hong really came into contact with professional training.
In the 1989 Women's Asian Cup, 22-year-old Gao Hong ushered in her national team debut, facing the weaker group of Thailand, head coach Shang Ruihua decided to let Gao Hong go to practice, Gao Hong still remembers that game, she described it as "very embarrassed".
She was so nervous that she was out of shape when she made the moves, "They broke us before we could break them, and they scored from a free-kick, and I didn't know what to do. ”
Despite the 3-1 reversal of the score by her teammates in the end, Gao Hong's poor performance still made him lose his place in the hearts of the coaching staff, and she worked on the bench for the national team for another six years, during which she made a major decision in her life - Liuyang.
In 1994, at the age of 27, Gao Hong joined the Japanese Takarazuka International Women's Football Club, and during her three years in Japan, Gao Hong was exposed to the professional league for the first time, and the foreign goalkeeper coach hired by the club also benefited Gao Hong a lotShe was named in the squad for the second Women's World Cup in Sweden in 1995 at the last minute, although she was still on the bench.
In the third match of the group stage against Nordic powerhouse Denmark, Gao Hong finally got the chance to appear, which was the first time her name appeared on the World Cup stage, and she was 28 years old at that time, which is an advanced age in the entire women's football environment.
But Gao Hong felt that as long as she could stand on the court, it didn't matter how old she was. He said: "1995 was a turning point in my life, I went out as a substitute goalkeeper, I didn't expect that I would get the chance to start in that game, from a second goalkeeper, to be developed by the team to a number one goalkeeper, I grew up in the tournament".In the quarterfinals, the Chinese women's football team and the host Sweden met in a narrow way, Sweden was a European powerhouse at that time, higher than China in terms of strength, but the women's football team was consumed with the opponent until the last moment, and the imminent penalty shootout was about to begin, for Gao Hong, it was her second women's football start.
But just like when she was 18 years old, Gao Hong saved three penalties from Sweden in front of goal, and she sent China to the semi-finals with an incredible performance, which also allowed her to stabilize her position in the women's football team.
In the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games, women's football was listed as an official competition for the first time, Gao Hong finally became the No. 1 goalkeeper of the women's football team, she and her teammates went all the way to the finals, they used their persistence and enthusiasm to write a legend about sonorous roses, and Chinese football also raised its eyebrows for the first time in the world competition.
Time came to the American summer of 1999, which was the most beautiful bloom of that generation of sonorous roses.
The "sonorous rose" represented by Gao Hong, Sun Wen, Liu Ailing, Wen Lirong and Fan Yunjie as the four lines of women's football players is more mature than the Olympic Games three years ago, and the 32-year-old Gao Hong even thought that this might be her last appearance for China.
Meritorious coach Ma Yuanan led the Chinese women's football team all the way through the obstacles, winning all three games in the group stage, defeating Russia in the knockout round, defeating the defending champion Norway 5:0 in the semifinals, scoring 19 goals in five games and conceding only 2 goals, the Chinese team has shown its championship appearance.
Years later, Gao Hong said it wasn't a miracle to make it to the final.
Our players were the best in the world. Sun Wen's attacking power in the front line, Zhao Lihong's fast breakthrough on the side, Liu Ailing's overall view of the midfield, Wen Lirong's hardness on the back line, and Wang Liping's ability to go back and forth in the fullback position ......Let's put it this way, the starting 11 main players, at least six or seven are the world's top players ......It's just a pity that for various reasons, we didn't get the final championship. She said.
On July 10, 1999, 90,000 spectators were crammed into the Rose Bowl Stadium in California, thousands of miles away in China, and hundreds of millions of fans sat in front of the TV and waited for a miracle. Roberto Baggio left the world with a melancholy back here five years ago, and what is the ending that awaits the women's football team this time?
That hot afternoon, the two teams of China and the United States presented a classic final in the Women's World Cup, 90 minutes of fierce battle, the two sides are indistinguishable, in extra time, Fan Yunjie's header has become a "goal-line suspense" in international football, slow motion shows that the header has actually crossed the goal line as a whole, but in the end it fell short.
Between the lines, one step away is an eternal pain in the hearts of countless fans.
It was another penalty shootout, and Gao Hong stood in front of the goal and felt the pressure he had never felt before: "I'm not nervous, but the pressure is invisible and can't be controlled. ”
In addition to the opponent, she also had to face the audience, most of whom came to see the Americans win the championship, and in the boos of the audience, Gao Hong made her own saves again and again.
At that time, the American goalkeeper Curry repeatedly left the goal line with both feet to expand the saving angle, but the referee on duty turned a blind eye, and Gao Hong moved within the rules every timeThere were too many people who didn't want to win that day, and didn't want China to be the protagonist on the stage set up by the Americans.
Liu Ying's shot went wide and the Chinese women's team fell before the penalty shootout, but all the women's football players were able to stand and leave, and Gao Hong conceded the fewest goals in that cup and was named to the best team.
Many years later, when Gao Hong came to the United States to play, she learned that she was focused on research by the American coaching staff before the penalty competition, and in the Algarve Cup that year, China and the United States also played a penalty shootout, Gao Hong saved two penalty kicks, and the American coach has been studying Gao Hong's shooting habits since then.
"Team USA's goalkeeper coach Tony collected a lot of footage of me saving a penalty and then interpreted my habit of staring into the eyes of the free-throw players. Cut out the footage before the final and show it to the U.S. players, and ask everyone to keep their heads down when they make free throws, so that I don't see their eyes. ”She didn't expect that the preparation of the U.S. women's soccer team would be so meticulous more than 20 years ago.
In 2000, Major League Soccer was founded, and as one of the best goalkeepers in the world at that time, Gao Hong accepted an invitation from the New York Super Club to play in the United States.
In 2004, the 37-year-old Gao Hong officially announced that he would hang up his boots, ending his 19-year football journeyHer football career began in an accident, but the whole process was full of perseverance and courage, she is not the kind of talented talent, but relies on perseverance and persistence to become a star.
To a certain extent, she alone is the best interpretation of the spirit of women's football, but she still has to fight for a bright star.
The greatness of unexpected achievements is also glorious enough, shocking the past and the present, when the burden of the goalkeeper is relieved, Gao Hong is close to the age of not being confused, but she still chooses to regain herself.
She studied sports science at the University of Worcester in the United Kingdom, where she earned a master's degree. He also used this time to visit European clubs and top coaches.
She spoke to former Germany international Tina Toina about the development of women's football in China and Germany, Domanski, a Swede who also coached women's football, and Mo Marie of the English Football Association about the possible ...... of professionalism in women's football
Gao Hong once said: "I would like to thank them for their generous help and advice. In particular, their charisma, professionalism and dedication have inspired my career in management."
She found her own answer, the development of women's football needs a solid foundation of youth training, she led the U17 women's football team to the World Youth Championships, in this batch of players Zhang Linyan and Shen Mengyu have now become the mainstay of the Chinese women's football team, the sonorous rose inheritance has not been interrupted, although the pattern and development of women's football we can not change.
The Chinese women's football team is not weaker, but the women's football in many other countries in the world has become stronger, and we don't seem to have kept up with this wave of changes, and the rise of the national football team still needs younger forces.
She plunged headlong into campus sports, and in January 2023, she became the new director of competition training of Evergrande Football School, looking for new possibilities for the Chinese women's football team.
When I see these kids training very the football field, they are missing ...... in every wayWhat I want most is for them to learn to think independently, they need to think and play football with their minds, not just running or practicing, silly practice and stupid running, football should be an activity of thought. This is Gao Hong's original intention to come to Evergrande Football School.
In 1994, she met a local man when she went to Canada to play a game, and was later introduced by a friend to become a couple, but at that time, Gao Hong was bent on the national team, and the two had been in love for 10 years but could not wait for it to blossom.
With feelings on one side and football on the other, it can be said that Gao Hong has made his own choice.
She describes herself as a workaholic, but her favorite outside of work is travel and driving, and she recently went to Africa with her mother to photograph.
One night during the 2019 Women's World Cup, Gao Hong's white jeep was walking on an unnamed side road, with no street lights and no pedestrians, and just as she was skeptically moving forward, a car behind her turned on its headlights, "The car kept a certain distance from me, with its headlights on, illuminating the road in front of me." The car didn't leave until I drove to a place where there was a light in the town. The driver may have seen that I was hesitant, so he told me with a bright light that someone was accompanying me. ”
This set of roads is also like the choices faced by Chinese football at present, there is still no light ahead, only a confused path leads to the unknown distance, but there are still adherents like Gao Hong on this road, who use his football life of nearly 40 years to lead everyone. Perhaps the fate of Chinese football now is like the famous line in "The King of Comedy": "It's pitch black ahead, and you can't see anything." No, it's going to be beautiful after dawn. ”
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