Southeast Asian football
Changes!
Former national team captain Fan Zhiyi's sentence after losing 1-5 to Thailand in a warm-up match played by the Chinese men's national football team in Hefei, Anhui Province, has become the "most reasonable quote" for today's Chinese society to comprehensively squeeze the Chinese men's football team. From Fan Zhiyi's point of view, perhaps it was just an angry sentence at the time, but it has to be said that the current development of Southeast Asian football is far beyond the imagination of Chinese footballers and even Chinese society. No, in the ongoing Southeast Asia U23 Championship, Laos beat Malaysia and Vietnam beat Singapore 7-0, which was considered impossible two or three years ago, and now it has become a reality!
1
It may be even harder to win Vietnam in the future
The Southeast Asia U23 Championship, hosted by SOUTHEAST ASIAN FOOTBALL Federation, is currently being played in Cambodia, the first youth tournament hosted by ALA since the 2020 pandemic and the second regional tournament to be hosted after the 13th Southeast Asian Championships in Singapore from the end of November to the end of December last year. In this tournament, Laos, which has always been the second and third from the bottom in Southeast Asia, actually defeated Malaysia in a 2-1 reversal, which has never happened in so many years.
Although the Malaysian team has a number of overseas players of the right age who have not returned to the team, Malaysia, whether it is a youth team or a national team, is considered to be the southeast Asian football team that can wrench the wrist with teams including Thailand, Vietnam and even Indonesia, and it is also a team that can compete for the championship. Lost to Laos? In a way, it is like the recent 1-3 loss of the Chinese men's football team to Vietnam, which triggered a shock in Southeast Asian football, whether it is Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia or Malaysia's media, directly using "earthquake" to describe the Lao team's defeat of Malaysia. This shows its impact.
The Vietnamese team defeated the Singapore team, which was originally a normal result, but the reason why it attracted so much attention is that the Vietnamese team participated in this time is not a 99-age team, and the Vietnam Football Association focused on the 2024 Paris Olympic Games and selected the 2001 age group to play in the Southeast Asia U23 Championship. The team's previous head coach was The Frenchman Trussier. After the outbreak, Trussier chose to leave. While formulating development plans for the next few years and aiming at the 2026 World Cup, the Vietnam Football Association pays more attention to the construction of youth national teams at all levels. This time, the 01 age group competed in the Southeast Asia U23 Championship, and the purpose was to exercise. And in order to give this age group more opportunities, the Hangzhou Asian Games in September this year will also select this age group to play.
Singapore sent a 99-year-old team this time, and the Singapore 99-year-old team members are basically from the Cubs, that is, the teams that participate in Singapore's domestic professional league. Facing a team two years younger than himself, Singapore actually lost by seven goals! This is in any case something that no one could have imagined before the game. On the one hand, the weakness of Singaporean football is evident from this; on the other hand, how much progress and progress has Vietnamese football made? Maybe we can feel it further.
Three years ago, in March 2019, the Chinese 01 age group U19 national youth team was invited to Nha Trang, Vietnam, to participate in a four-country competition. Liu Zhurun, Liu Junxian, Hou Yu, Su Bi, Yi Xianlong, Chen Yuhao, etc., who are currently participating in the training of the 01 age group U21 national youth team in Shanghai, all went to Vietnam with the team, and as a result, the Chinese team lost to the Vietnamese team 0-1. At that time, no. 7 Chen Mengqiong, who scored the only goal of the game for the Vietnamese team, was still in the team, but because he was tested positive before the match against Singapore and could not play, the other Vietnamese players were basically still there.
In the future, what will be the scene when the Teams of this age group in China and Vietnam fight again? Unpredictable. But this is not the main problem that the reporter wants to say, the real problem is that when Southeast Asian countries and regions are walking wider and wider on the elite road, and the direction is becoming clearer and clearer, Chinese football is still constantly arguing, and the management is constantly struggling. Moreover, Chinese football youth teams at all levels have not participated in an international competition in the past two years, "entertaining themselves" behind closed doors, completely unaware of the progress of the opponents around us. Therefore, Chinese football can only be thrown farther and farther away by the opponent. In the future, when Chinese teams at all levels go abroad to participate in international competitions, the gap may become more and more obvious. I am afraid that this is not a reporter who is worrying about the sky!
2
The Southeast Asia U23 Championship upset
When the Chinese men's national football team lost 1-3 to Vietnam in the Spring Festival, becoming the target and object of ridicule from all sides, and even switching to Fan Zhiyi's joke a few years ago, "The next thing to lose Myanmar or even not lose", the Laos team overthrew the Malaysian team 2-1 at the Southeast Asian U23 Championship in Cambodia, breaking the first big cold in this tournament! Perhaps, in the future, Chinese football will be ready to "align" with Lao football!
The Southeast Asia U23 Championship is a traditional tournament hosted by the Southeast Asian Football Union, and the teams participating in this year's tournament are all players born after January 1, 1999. Southeast Asian Football Federation hosted the event to provide warm-up opportunities for the 31st Southeast Asian Games Men's Football Tournament in Hanoi, Vietnam, in May this year, and the Asian Games Men's Football Tournament in Hangzhou in September, so that Southeast Asian teams can better prepare for these two events, and also to provide training opportunities for some Southeast Asian teams competing in the final stage of the fifth U23 Asian Cup in Uzbekistan in June. A total of 11 member associations of SOUTHEAST Asian Football Federation participated in this year's competition, but because the Indonesian team and the Myanmar team were affected by the new crown pneumonia virus, several people were diagnosed and could not gather the team members and had to withdraw, and only 9 teams participated in the end.
The Indonesian team and the Myanmar team were originally divided into the second group, with the Malaysian team and the Laos team in the same group. However, after the withdrawal of the two teams, SOUTHEAST Asian Football Federation did not adjust the grouping, but continued to develop according to the original group, but decided to let the Malaysian team and the Laos team meet twice, and determine the first place in the group by the overall score, while the loser was directly eliminated. The first place in the other two groups and the team with the best results in the two second places will also qualify for the semi-finals.
Yesterday, Laos and Malaysia competed in the first leg. The two teams were in the same group in the group stage of the fifth U23 Asian Cup qualifiers last October, when Malaysia won only 1-0. This time, the Malaysians also played very hard, until the second minute of injury time in the first half, only to take advantage of the last corner kick opportunity, through tactical coordination by Servan at the back point of the shot to take a 1-0 lead. After the change of edge, although the Malaysian team continued to attack strongly, the effect was not ideal. Instead, the Laos team counterattacked twice, winning consecutive matches in the 56th and 79th minutes to win the victory against the Malaysian team 2-1.
It should be pointed out that the Laos team changed coaches after the end of the Southeast Asian Championships in December last year, and the German coach Weiss, who had been in Southeast Asia for a long time, was invited to serve as the head coach, and Weiss also assisted Clauschen's assistant when the Chinese 85-year-old national youth team played at the 2005 World Youth Championships in the Netherlands. This competition was the first time that Weiss commanded the Lao team to participate, and the result was a hit. Malaysia was one of the top eight teams at the 2018 U23 Asian Championships and defeated South Korea at the 2018 Asian Games in Indonesia. In the 2020 U23 Asian Championship qualifiers, the Chinese 97-year-old national Olympic team was almost eliminated, and the Chinese team only won 2-2 with Malaysia before the final goal, and finally barely reached the final stage with the advantage of more goal difference. Judging from the current situation, the international competitiveness of China's youth teams is getting worse and worse, and in the face of Southeast Asian teams, I am afraid that no matter which team, it is difficult to say that it will be victorious.
According to the schedule, on February 21, Malaysia will compete with Laos for the second leg.
3
Vietnam beat Singapore by seven goals
The Southeast Asia U23 Championship is a tournament dominated by players from the age of 99, and THE EAFA hopes to provide training opportunities for the 31st Southeast Asian Games Men's Football Tournament in Hanoi in May. Therefore, the Singapore team mainly 99 age players and absorbed some 01 age group players to go to Cambodia. In the first round, Singapore lost 1-3 to Thailand. Before this game, the Vietnamese side was still worried, because the Vietnamese team sent a team mainly in the 01 age group, and there was only 1 99 age group player and 2 00 age group players in the team.
However, during the epidemic, the virus has continuously affected the participating teams. Before Vietnam played in Singapore, 3 players and 1 official of the Vietnamese team could not play because they tested positive; 7 players in Singapore were tested positive, and only 14 players, including 2 goalkeepers, were able to play. This is what makes it impossible for Singapore to play with the strongest squad. After the start of the game, although the Singapore team occupied the initiative on the field and completely dominated the possession, the Vietnamese team played with the Singapore team with defensive counterattack tactics, and won the first counterattack in the opening 3 minutes, with Nguyen Van Son's header opening the record; in the 33rd minute, Ding Chun attacked and scored the second goal; 4 minutes later, Nguyen Van Son scored twice. In the first half, Vietnam led 3-0.
Less than 10 minutes after Yi Bian, a Singapore midfielder was sent off. In a 11-on-10 situation, Vietnam's counterattack appeared more methodical, and then scored four goals in a row to win 7-0.
This result allowed Vietnam to temporarily take the first place in the group with a goal difference advantage. On February 22, Vietnam will play a decisive battle with Thailand to compete for the right to qualify for the top spot in the group. According to the competition regulations, the first place of the three groups plus the second place of the best result of the four teams will enter the final stage of the competition.