According to the plan, the 2001 age group U21 national youth team, that is, the new Chinese Olympic men's football team, should conduct the first training of the new year at the Shanghai Oriental Oasis Base from February 10 to March 5, during which the whole team will play about 8 warm-up matches. However, due to the impact of the epidemic, all warm-up matches of this team will be implemented in an "internal digestion" manner. When the Japan Football Association, uzbekistan football association and other AFC member associations confirmed the arrangement of Olympic age-appropriate players to participate in the East Asian Cup or Asian Games, the U21 Chinese youth team, which carries the heavy responsibility of impacting the Paris Olympic Games, can only "take one step and look at one step" on the issue of seeking practical opportunities.
Judging from the current situation, from the perspective of improving the structure of professional leagues at all levels and maintaining the fairness of league competition, it is difficult to continue to arrange for the U21 national youth team to participate in the middle and low-level professional leagues in the new season. The gap between the new Olympic team and other Asian rivals, which continues to lack high-quality competition, is in danger of being further widened.
In preparation for the first stage of the Paris Olympic Football Tournament Qualifiers, which will be unveiled in March next year, the 2001 chinese national youth team, the new national Olympic men's football team, has kicked off the first training session of the New Year in Shanghai since February 10. It is worth noting that a total of 50 players have been selected for this period of training, including many players like Tao Qianglong, Liu Zhurun, Efeldin, Ling Jie, who are gradually playing the main force in professional leagues at all levels.
For this Olympic hope team, the significance of the early start of the Year of the Tiger is more than "stupid birds fly first". Since the new season of the Chinese Super League and all levels of the league is likely to start in late April, whether this U21 national youth team can participate in the middle and lower professional leagues as in the past two seasons is still uncertain. At present, a considerable number of players in the team can already be the main force or the main substitute at all levels of the league, and the coaching staff has to arrange the first two training sessions of the new year in advance in order to avoid the national youth team training from affecting their participation in the pre-season preparation and competition of the club team. Among them, the first training camp ended on March 5, and the whole team rested for less than a week, and it will be re-concentrated around March 10, and then the training camp will be until the end of the month. In this way, players can return to the club team and get more than 2 weeks of preparation time.
The Beijing Youth Daily reporter learned that the reason why the coaching team of the U21 national youth team with Cheng Yaodong as the coach recruited as many as 50 players to participate in this training session was, on the one hand, to comprehensively examine the elite athletes of the appropriate age at the Paris Olympic Games, on the other hand, to meet the needs of the competition. Affected by the epidemic, this team has not been able to participate in official international competitions for about the past two years after being eliminated from the Asian Youth Championship qualifiers that year. Because the 2021 season of the Chinese Super League did not end until January this year, a considerable number of players experienced different degrees of fatigue and injuries after an unprecedented busy season, in this case, the coaching staff had to prepare more "soldiers and horses" to deal with various unexpected situations that may occur during the training period.
It is reported that in order to ensure the quality of preparation, while accurately grasping the ability and physical condition of the selected players, the coaching team arranged nearly 8 warm-up matches in this training session. Of course, the competition is all internal teaching competitions. It is worth noting that more than 20 of the players selected for the U21 national youth team training squad are attacking players, while about half of the remaining players are middle and backcourt players.
From the perspective of specific candidates, players including Tao Qianglong, Liu Zhurun, Efelding, and Ling Jie, who were active in the front line of professional leagues at all levels last season, have been recruited. As long as they maintain normal standards, the hope of entering the "refined" lineup of Olympic preparations is very great. In fact, the coaching staff will not be too difficult in the selection of attack line candidates, and the real headache for them is actually the pinch of the middle and backcourt candidates. It is understood that compared with the previous national youth team in the 1999 age group, the 2001 age group national youth team has a relatively narrow selection of candidates in the middle and backcourt, especially the central axis. For example, among the 1999 national youth team age-appropriate players, Jiang Shenglong, Wu Shaocong and Zhu Chenjie not only played the main force in their respective clubs, but also entered the national team roster. However, the 2001 age group of the national youth team in the back, center back and other positions are lackluster. An important reason for this reality is that compared to attackers, midfielders and backcourt players can hardly guarantee appearances in their respective clubs, and some players have never even been given a chance to play in the league. Although affected by the "golden dollar ebb tide", foreign aid has faded out of domestic professional football in batches, but most of them are attacking players, even if the clubs arrange the top of the local generals, it is difficult to arrange young players to serve as the main force or main substitute in the important positions of each team and the backcourt.
Speaking of this, we have to mention the embarrassing reality of the lack of high-level practical training faced by the national youth team in the 2001 age group. Although the value of this team's training in the middle and lower leagues in the past two seasons is obvious, there has been controversy in the football world for the participation of the national team in the professional league. After the defeat of the national football team in the round of 12, doing a good job in the Chinese Super League and leagues at all levels has become a common voice in the industry. Therefore, on the issue of maintaining the professional attributes of the league and ensuring the fairness of the format, a considerable number of people in the industry have opposed the practice of national teams participating in the league, which is why the U21 national youth team cannot confirm whether it will participate in the corresponding level league in the new season to this day. If the U21 national youth team does not have enough games to play, then the actual combat ability of the middle and backcourt players who originally had no ball to play in the club will not be guaranteed.
Tao Qianglong
The coaching staff of the national youth team has actually expressed considerable concern about the possible situation of teams being excluded from the league this year. After all, affected by the epidemic, this team is difficult to implement an international warm-up in the short term, in addition to making a car behind closed doors through intensive training. Then once the team cannot participate in the professional league as in the past two seasons, it can only solve the problem of practical exercise by inviting some local club teams or youth echelon teams to play teaching competitions, but the value or effect of such exercise is self-evident.
It is understood that the vast majority of players of the right age who will represent Chinese football in the Men's Football Tournament of the Paris Olympic Games will be selected from the 50 players selected for the training lineup of the current U21 national youth team. After this period of training, the training lineup will be further streamlined. By the next training, only more than 30 players participated in the training. From this point of view, the competition within this team is very fierce. According to the coaching staff's plan, the team will enter an intensive internal teaching competition cycle starting February 20. Every 1 player will receive an average of 3 appearances.
Text/Beiqing Sports Xiao Zhao