Blind football matches are in full swing at China's 12th National Games for Persons with Disabilities and 9th National Special Olympic Games, which opened on Monday.
In Monday's face-offs, Yunnan defeated Liaoning 2-1 while Shanghai beat Xinjiang 2-0, with both teams securing their second consecutive wins in the group stage.
Yunnan entered this match after an opening victory over Xinjiang, while Liaoning was coming off a loss to Fujian.
Blind football is a sport specifically designed for athletes with visual impairments. The ball is equipped with a built-in bell, and the players rely entirely on sound to navigate direction and shoot goals.
Each team has five players: four are classified as B1 and must wear eye masks during matches. The goalkeeper can be B2 or B3, which means partially sighted or sighted. Played on a small five-a-side pitch surrounded by barriers, the game involves coaches providing tactical guidance from outside the barriers at the midfield area, goalkeepers offering real-time defensive updates, and guides giving shooting instructions from behind the opponent's goal.
It is a highly competitive contact sport, and collisions are inevitable.
"In our sport, injuries are common. In fact, we are afraid sometimes, as all humans fear naturally, but we gradually overcame it. For me, playing football has brought immense confidence," said Li Shimin, a player at the Shanghai Blind Football Team.
Jointly hosted by south China's Guangdong Province and the special administrative regions of Hong Kong and Macao, this year's games run from Dec. 8 to 15, gathering a total of 7,218 athletes, an increase of 2,734 from the previous edition.
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