Reporter Chen Yong reported that on the evening of April 3, the U23 national team and the Chinese national team took the opportunity to return to China from West Asia, this time out of West Asia, the U23 national team played 5 games in half a month, and their pace of conquest will not stop: in July this year, the U23 national team will play in the East Asian Cup, in September, they will play in the Asian Games, two consecutive events for the U23 national team will be a very good exercise.
The U23 national team's trip to West Asia is to participate in the Dubai Cup competition, and the Dubai Cup matches a total of 3 rounds. The U23 national team lost 0-1 in the first round against the UAE U23 team, and the second match against thai U23 team, which won 4-2. After the first two rounds, the U23 national team scored into the top 4 (a total of 10 participating teams), in the third and fourth qualifying matches, the U23 national team again played against the United Arab Emirates, but this time the U23 national team failed to get a more ideal score, although the game process played a more aggressive content than the first game, but the team conceded a goal after the opening, and conceded 2 goals in the stoppage time, ending the Dubai Cup with a 0-3 defeat.
It is worth noting that although the purpose of this trip to West Asia is to participate in the Dubai Cup, before and after the Dubai Cup, the U23 national team has also contacted two warm-up matches. Before the Dubai Cup, against Abu Dhabi's Wahdah, the opponent international was absent but played by foreign aid, resulting in a tenacious U23 national team, a 1-1 draw; after the Dubai Cup, it was against the UAE second division team Liwa FC, and finally the U23 national team won 3-0. So far, the U23 national team has played 5 games in this trip to West Asia, and the final result is 2 wins, 1 draw and 2 losses.
The U23 national team is a 1999 age group team, they do not have the task of the Olympic Games, in theory, the U23 Asian Cup and the Asian Games are the last two events they participated in, but because of the epidemic, the U23 national team gave up the U23 Asian Cup qualifiers, and thus missed the U23 Asian Cup - so the team's mission in the traditional sense of the competition is left with the Asian Games. According to the rules, the Asian Games allow 3 over-aged players, so the U23 national team can recruit 3 over-aged players to compete.
As for the East Asian Cup, in principle, the adult national team participates. But before that, China, Japan, South Korea and other countries also sent out the nominal national team, often not the strongest lineup of each team, but the second set of national teams, and even the low-age national team. In other words, in recent years, the East Asian Cup has been responsible for assessing players and selecting talents for the China-Japan-ROK national team. For example, in the 2017 East Asian Cup, when Lippi led the team to participate, a group of young players including Wei Shihao, Gao Zhunyi, and Yang Liyu were recruited; when Li Tie led the team to participate in the East Asian Cup in 2019, he also sent a relatively young team. Therefore, the Chinese side finally confirmed that Jankovic's U23 national team will participate in the East Asian Cup, which is actually expected.
In principle, the East Asian Cup was held in December, but this year, due to the Qatar World Cup, it was rescheduled to July, and the original host country was China. However, due to multiple reasons, China is currently unable to advance according to the established plan, so the East Asian Cup will be relocated to Japan or South Korea. As for the opponents, Japan has decided that it will send the U21 national team, a team in the 2001 age group, whose goal is to compete in the 2024 Olympics. The South Korean side has not yet confirmed the team to participate, but it will certainly not be a legitimate national team.
As previously reported, for this U23 national football team, which has been plagued by the epidemic since its inception and lacks international warm-up opportunities, every overseas competition is a very valuable exercise opportunity. In the context of the urgent need for the national team to be replaced, many U23 players in this team who have previously entered the national team training list have also attracted much attention, such as Han Jiaqi, Wu Shaocong, Jiang Shenglong, Guo Tianyu, and Zhu Chenjie and Dai Weijun, who have played in the top 12.
Considering that the U23 national football team not only has to take on the heavy responsibility of the iteration of the national football team, but also needs to prepare for the local event of the Hangzhou Asian Games. It is not excluded that the East Asian Cup will also recruit some overage players in the context of Yankovic's team as the main framework - such as Zhang Yuning, Tong Lei, Yang Liyu, Yan Dinghao, Gao Tianyi and Duan Liuyu, who were previously selected for the national team or the national football training list.
In a sense, the team that will appear in the East Asian Cup will be the prototype of the future Chinese men's national team. In this case, the U23 national team's participation in the East Asian Cup and Asian Games is not only a training for this group of players, but also a reserve for the future national team.