According to the plan, the new Chinese men's football team will be concentrated in Shanghai on January 10, and then prepare for two away matches against Japan and Vietnam on January 27 and February 1. With the arrival of the New Year, the "construction" of the coaching team by the new coach Li Xiaopeng has also been basically completed. If there are no accidents, including Zheng Zhi, Li Jinyu, Zhao Junzhe, Li Leilei, Shao Jiayi, Sun Xiang, a number of former outstanding international footballers who are currently serving in front-line coaching or industry management positions in the Chinese Super League will join the new national football coaching team.
Due to the sudden resignation of the team's original British physical coach Adrian Lamb due to family reasons, the Chinese Football Association specially invited Irving Wilk, a Brazilian physical coach from Shanghai Shenhua Club, to join the national football team. An unprecedentedly large coaching team will work together to help the national football team participate in the final four rounds of preparation and competition of the top 12. It can be seen that while supporting the team to play the World Preliminary Tournament well, the national football leadership working group also took precautions and injected new vitality into the team and explored new ways out by using potential local coaches.
This Friday, the last day of 2021. Li Xiaopeng appeared in the Guangzhou division of the Chinese Super League. As the new coach of the national football team, it is a very normal thing for Li Xiaopeng to go down to the division to inspect the players. But on this day, he has a more important task, that is, to fully retain Jiang Guangtai, a naturalized player currently playing for Guangzhou. Affected by the unfavorable objective factors encountered by Guangzhou Football Club, among the 4 active international footballers, Alain, Axon and Luo Guofu have returned to Brazil at different times. Affected by the epidemic and international travel restrictions, these three people have been unable to participate in the new national football training that will start on January 10, even if they can go directly to Japan in late January to meet the team, their status is good or bad, and it is difficult for the coaching staff to make a clear grasp.
Jiang Guangtai's situation was different from theirs. Since returning to China with the national football team on November 18 last year and lifting the quarantine on December 9, Jiang Guangtai has been in Guangzhou, and then entered the division to participate in the second stage of the Chinese Super League with Guangzhou. Since the future of the Guangzhou club is still full of variables, the question of where Jiang Guangtai will go is difficult to determine for a while. Under these circumstances, Li Xiaopeng finally decided to go to Guangzhou in person to communicate with him. Although the specific content of the communication is unknown, according to informed sources, Li Xiaopeng made a sincere stay on December 31 last year, and the communication effect was ideal. This means that the naturalized iron guard will most likely participate in the new training session with the national football team and compete in Japan and Vietnam.
In fact, since the Chinese Football Association officially announced the change of national football coach on December 8, Li Xiaopeng has been in some cities in China, especially the city where the professional league division is located. Its purpose is to communicate with the relevant clubs (units) about the selection of teaching assistants. Beijing Youth Daily reporter learned on January 1 that as of the arrival of the New Year, the construction of Li Xiaopeng's team was basically completed.
During the meeting of the leading group of the national football preparation work in Shanghai two weeks ago, Li Xiaopeng has circled a relatively large list of candidate assistant coaches in combination with the needs of the team. After weeks of lobbying and communication, the specific candidates have been finalized. Just wait for the approval of the "leadership working group", the Chinese Football Association will announce the specific candidates.
The Beijing Youth Daily reporter learned that the candidates who enter the national football assistant team are basically excellent international representatives of the Chinese team at different times, and they are currently playing an important role in coaching or managing the frontline of chinese super clubs. These candidates include Shao Jiayi, who represented the national football team in the 2002 World Cup and is currently the executive committee member of the Chinese Football Association, Zhao Junzhe, the main player of the 2002 World Cup national football team, the current leader of the Guangzhou City team of the Chinese Super League and the head coach of the Chinese coaching team, Zheng Zhi and Li Jinyu, who are currently the executive manager and coach of the Guangzhou team and Wuhan team, Li Leilei, the former goalkeeper of the national football team who served as the goalkeeper coach of the Wuhan team, the former international footballer who used to play for the Eindhoven club in the Netherlands, and Sun Xiang, who currently works for the Shanghai Harbor Club of the Chinese Super League.
Judging from the specific candidate list, these candidates not only have relatively rich and excellent international football experience, but also have participated in the systematic coaching qualification certification training at all levels before and after retirement. More importantly, in recent years, whether as coaches or club managers, they have accumulated rich experience in their respective positions, and have made great progress in absorbing advanced football coaching, management concepts and treating people and materials. In addition, in coaching or management positions, most of them have been assigned by outstanding predecessors or well-known foreign teachers in the same field. For example, although Zheng Zhi has not yet hung up his boots, he has learned from world-class coaches such as Lippi and Scolari for many years and has benefited a lot. Sun Xiang, Zhao Junzhe and others also have similar learning experiences. It should be said that having them build a teaching assistant team of national football is tantamount to providing Li Xiaopeng with a huge think tank team. It should be noted that some candidate coaches are affected by various factors and do not currently have professional-level coaching qualifications, and their specific roles and titles for entering the national team in the future are subject to official final confirmation.
When the relevant parties confirmed that Li Xiaopeng would take over the national football team, they had actually confirmed the idea of "combining East and West" in the coaching team of the new cycle of national football. Affected by the epidemic and other practical factors, Li Xiaopeng's favorite Spanish assistant coach Pep has not been able to reach the team in the short term. In this case, after communicating with the "leading group", Li Xiaopeng decided to retain the former foreign coaches and working team members of the national football team, including the Belgian technical director of the Chinese Football Association, Chris, his assistant Roy, and the physical coach Adrian Lamb. However, recently Lamb suddenly submitted his resignation to the Chinese Football Association. It is understood that the reason for his resignation was the illness of his wife. Having been away from home for a long time, he needs to return to the UK to take care of his wife and children. In this case, the Chinese Football Association and Li Xiaopeng had to choose another person to "fill the gap". It was in this context that Irving Wilk, a Brazilian physical coach from Shenhua Club, was invited by the national football team.
Judging from the specific candidates of Li Xiaopeng's team, this is a new set of combinations. Although the candidates for local assistant coaches are all close teammates and partners of Li Xiaopeng's previous player era or coaching period, the coaching platform of the national team is obviously different from the club management or club team coaching position. In other words, the coaching work of the national team has always been "a long way to go" and has attracted the attention of all sectors of society. For Li Xiaopeng and his team members, in addition to immersing themselves in hard work, perhaps more need is keen thinking ability and good psychological quality. The work of the national team requires them to be able to remain rational and sober in the complex competition and public opinion environment, and effectively manage emotions. As for the effectiveness of the work, it also needs to be strictly considered by practice and time.
According to the plan, the national football team will be concentrated in Shanghai on January 10, and then it is expected to go to Japan on January 23 to participate in the match against Japan on the 27th.
Text/Beiqing Sports Xiao Zhao