The Paper's reporter Song Chengliang
Yang Chen, head coach of the national junior team.
On the evening of the 25th, at the Jinshan Sports Center, Gao Hongbo, vice chairman of the Chinese Football Association in charge of youth training, sat in the stands and watched the competition between the Chinese U16 National Junior A team and the Shandong Luneng echelon.
In the last 10 minutes of the game, the Luneng players equalized in the penalty area, and in injury time, the national junior team won 2-1.
Although there is no way to invite foreign teams to participate during the epidemic, as a traditional youth training event in recent years, the Jinshan Cup competition is still enough to watch.
Leading this national junior team is former international Yang Chen. As a pioneer of Chinese football, Yang Chen has enough say in the past, present and future of Chinese football youth training.
The national junior team is in the game.
Raise the flag and prepare for the Asian Junior Championship
In march this year, during the competition for the head coach of the national junior high, former international Yang Chen defeated young managers such as Wei Xin, Zhang Xiaorui and Liu Junwei, and his task was to go all out to prepare for the 2023 U17 Asian Cup.
The Asian Junior Qualifiers should be held in September or October this year, but the final stage of the competition has been postponed to 2023 due to the epidemic, so the qualifiers have also been postponed to 2022, which is equivalent to giving each team nearly a year more time to prepare.
The Jinshan Cup is the first appearance of this national junior team - in the early half a year, Yang Chen has selected players across the country, "There are two main ways, one is that there is a league cup competition in this age group at R&F Football School, there are 6 club teams participating, and we went to the scene to watch the game." ”
"There is also a football association youth department in April this year held an elite selection camp for 80 people in the 2005 age group and the 2006 age group. That is to say, the players we have now are selected from these two places. ”
In order to give players of this age group more opportunities for actual combat matches, Yang Chen specially set up two teams, team A and team B, he believes that the actual combat value of the Jinshan Cup is very large, the players of the national junior team are generally 1 year younger than the opponent, which belongs to the small play; after playing the Jinshan Cup, at the end of October, the national teenager will go to Zibo to participate in the "Origin Cup".
"At that point it could be a team. So from the beginning of the team in May to the current Jinshan Cup, this period of time is actually a process of screening players. After the Golden Mountain Cup, we may determine a big list, the number may be within 35, maybe within 30, and the whole team has really become a U16 national team. ”
Yang Chen coached the players in training.
There are no particularly prominent players
Previously, many insiders who care about youth training have mentioned the same point of view - since the 2005 age group, the level of Chinese youth players has improved significantly.
Yang Chen's team happens to be in this age group, and next year's Asian Junior Championship qualifiers will also be the first time that a team in the post-2005 age group will play in an Asian competition, when the level of Chinese youth training in The Asian scope may have a relatively clear outline.
For this problem, Yang Chen's own feeling is that the actual situation is not so optimistic, "There are players with outstanding personal characteristics, but everyone seems to have a very different level, and there is no such thing as a particularly prominent one." ”
For example, he said, "In the positions of forward and forward, we are still good at choosing people, but there are actually not many good seedlings to choose in the defensive line, so we are sometimes forced to change some forwards to defenders and make some attempts." There is no way around this, and I even think that the current backline seedlings are a bit broken. ”
When summarizing this reason, Yang Chen believes, "It may be that when children play football, most of them choose to play the position of forward, because some of the stars they worship, such as Messi, C Ronaldo, etc., are playing forwards, so they also hope to become Messi and C Luo, so there are fewer real defenders." ”
All round inches of national junior players.
"I have to manage strictly here"
In this competition, media reporters jointly found that the hairstyles of all the players of the national junior team are basically similar to the short hair of the board inch, and Yang Chen took the initiative to mention in an interview that he needs to teach the players a correct value.
"I also told the children that Yang Dao not only taught you to play football, but also taught you to be human."
When Yang Chen was 15 years old, the environment was very different from now, and he also admitted, "There are many things that can attract them in society now, such as game consoles and mobile phones, how to guide them correctly, this is a problem that must be faced." ”
"We have to be strictly managed here, even a little militarized, I hope they can understand." Our real purpose is to be on the pitch, and children of our age will have to practice more to improve their level. ”
But in Yang Chen's view, the same is that players must have a sense of honor to win glory for the country from an early age.
"Because I've also played in the national brand, I think this sense of national honor is very important in this process. You are now one of the youngest members of the U16 national team to represent your country, and you should feel that this is an honor. For this honor, you have to give more than others. ”
Jinshan Cup looks forward to continuing to cultivate talents
As one of the highest standard youth football events in China, the "Jinshan Cup" was officially launched in 2017, and this year has been held for the fifth consecutive year. The tournament is supported by the Chinese Football Association, Shanghai Municipal Sports Bureau, Shanghai Football Association, and was recognized as an international B-class event in 2019.
Although the 2021 Shanghai "Jinshan Cup" has been affected by the epidemic to a certain extent, the "Jinshan Cup" Organizing Committee has combined the experience of the past four years to invite the best youth training teams in China to participate.
The Chinese Football Association also attaches great importance to the Jinshan Cup. In 2019, Chen Shuyuan was just elected president of the Chinese Football Association at the Football Congress, and the first stop of his public appearance was the Jinshan Cup final a few days later, when Chen Shuyuan, Secretary-General Liu Yi and Vice Chairman Sun Wen collectively appeared on the scene and presented awards to the champion team.
In the fourth Jinshan Cup in 2020, Liu Yi also came to the scene to present the award to the champion, but because of the epidemic relationship, the competition could only be played by all domestic teams for the first time.
At that time, the relevant person of the Jinshan Cup Organizing Committee told the surging news reporter that in the future, the organizing committee will go all out to promote the upgrading of the competition, invite the youth teams of the world's football powers to participate, and strive to create the highest level of exchange platform for Chinese football youth training at the doorstep of their homes and promote the development of Chinese football.
"The long-term goal is definitely to invite high-level foreign teams of the same age group to participate, but conditions do not seem to allow it for the time being. Fortunately, now the domestic team also lacks the opportunity to play, we organize a little more domestic teams to participate, but also play a role in training players. Or hope to cultivate more talents through competitions. ”
Editor-in-Charge: Ascendas
Proofreader: Yan Zhang