After entering 2025, both the Chinese men's and women's football teams organized their first training sessions of the new year. The men's team trained in Haikou, Hainan, with head coach Ivan leading the preparations for this year's top 18 matches. The women's team, under the leadership of head coach Milicic, conducted winter training in Zhaoqing, Guangdong. During the training period, the women's team played a friendly match against the players from Evergrande Football School, which they lost. With a score of 2-5, the Chinese women's football team suffered their first loss of the year, defeated by the Evergrande U15 boys' team, and recorded five losses out of nine matches since Shui Qingxia's departure.
On January 18th, during the match between the Chinese women's football team and the Evergrande U15 team, Wu Haiyan served as the team captain and started the game. The Chinese women's team initially took control of the game's rhythm, with Shao Ziqin and Yuan Cong scoring goals to give them a 2-0 lead in the first half. However, problems arose in the team's defense later in the game, allowing Evergrande to equalize the score in the first half. In the second half, Evergrande scored three more goals to secure the victory.
In this training session, the Chinese women's football team had a total of 26 players on the roster, none of whom were overseas players. Wang Shuang, Li Mengwen, Shen Mengyu, and other overseas players did not participate in the training. The roster included goalkeepers Xu Huan, Peng Shimeng, and Pan Hongyan, eight defenders including Chen Qiaozhu, Dou Jiaxing, Si Yu, Wang Linlin, Wang Siqian, Wu Haiyan, Yang Qi, and Zhai Qingwei, nine midfielders including Chen Xiubing, Huo Yuexin, Liu Jing, Wang Aifang, Wang Zhen, Yan Qi, Yao Wei, Zhang Xin, and Zhi Jie, and six forwards Jin Kun, Miusiwen, Shao Ziqin, Sun Fangxin, Tang Jiali, and Yuan Cong.
Apart from the overseas players and Zhang Linyan, this should be the best lineup for the Chinese women's football team. However, they still lost to the mixed team of 10-11-year-old boys from Evergrande Football School. It must be said that there is indeed a significant gap between male and female football players. Even though the female players have an age advantage, the male players are stronger in terms of speed, strength, and physicality, enabling them to defeat the national women's football players through high-intensity and fast-paced games.
Additionally, since Shui Qingxia stepped down as the head coach of the Chinese women's football team (according to the contract, she automatically resigned after failing to qualify for the Olympics), the team's performance has been relatively poor. They lost 0-3 to the United States, 1-2 to the United States, drew 1-1 with Australia, lost 0-2 to Australia, won 3-0 against Uzbekistan, 2-0 against Vietnam, lost 1-4 to the Netherlands, and won 1-0 against Feyenoord. Now, they have lost to the Evergrande U15 team, resulting in a record of three wins, one draw, and five losses since Shui Qingxia's departure.
The Chinese women's football team is currently in a transition period, and the task for the Australian head coach Milicic is quite heavy. It is hoped that he can help the team quickly integrate and prepare well for next year's Asian Cup.