Reporter Chen Yong reported that on the afternoon of the 27th, in the last round of the East Asian Cup men's football competition, the national football selection team defeated the Chinese Hong Kong team 1-0, Tan Long scored a key winning goal, and the national football selection team also ended the East Asian Cup tour with a record of 1 win, 1 draw and 1 loss, and finally ranked third in the East Asian Cup.
Everyone knows the significance of this national football selection team and the Chinese Hong Kong team, although we call it the national football selection team, but the East Asian Cup is an international A-level competition, and the name of the national football selection team is actually "Chinese men's national football team", so if the national football selection team loses to the Chinese Hong Kong team, I am afraid that it is not only the fans who cannot accept it. If such an outcome happens again, Chinese football is bound to suffer another heavy blow – just like the national football team lost to Vietnam at the beginning of the year.
What makes people anxious is that for most of this game, the national football selection team did not show the appearance of being able to win: in the first 10 minutes of the opening, the national football selection team attacked well, and Jiang Shenglong's header was once a fraction of a cent away from the goal. But soon, the offensive of the national football selection team was contained. For the rest of the first half, as well as at the beginning of the second half, it was almost impossible for the national selection team to enter the opponent's 30-meter area, and the real threat formed by the Hong Kong team was quite limited.
The two teams circled the midline and the middle circle, seemingly oblivious to the existence of the opposing penalty area – in the words of some fans' unceremonious comments, it was really a "rookie pecking".
As far as manager Jankovic is concerned, his formation and employment are relatively conservative, 343 formation, but the two wing-backs are difficult to say well on the offensive end, the double midfield is equipped with central defender Jiang Shenglong as a defensive back, and the cooperation between another midfielder, Dai Weijun, and his teammates are obviously problematic. In other words, in the offensive and defensive conversion, 4 of the 343 formations performed generally and could not bear the heavy responsibility of attacking and defensive conversion, even if Dai Weijun also had the ability to start the main force in the regular national team, he still could not change this embarrassment. In fact, the midfield has always been a chronic disease of the U23 national team.
Fortunately, it is in a situation where the national football selection team has almost no hope of winning. The players were forced to grab in the front court but were favored by luck, Chen Guokang's blocking in the opponent's backfield unexpectedly turned into an assist, and Tan Long in the penalty area slightly adjusted his pace and a powerful shot pierced through the goal of the Hong Kong team. Tan Long also became the oldest A-level game goal scorer in the history of the national football team with this goal: 34 years, 3 months and 25 days. In the end, the national football selection team also won the first victory of this Year's East Asian Cup.
Objectively, only from the perspective of the results of the game, the record of 1 win, 1 draw and 1 loss actually exceeded the pre-game expectations of many people. Even if the Japanese team, which eventually won the championship, sent a "J-League selection team" that only rotated 11 people when facing the national football selection team, the draw was definitely a "windfall". In the final game of the Hong Kong team, in the eyes of many pessimists, not losing has been regarded as holding the bottom line.
But behind the slightly higher than expected record, the technical and tactical level shown is really very bad: in the first game, the national football selection team completely followed the rhythm of the South Korean team, and finally started with a oolong ball, 0-3 defeat, that game, the national football selection team obviously did not adapt to the intensity of the Korean team.'
In the second game, the national football selection team was obviously better in terms of rhythm and intensity adaptation, more importantly, the Japanese team rotated the whole team and performed averagely, while the national football players were very desperate, and the technical and tactical gap between Japanese football and Korean football was also one of the reasons why the national football selection team could "fight and gain" when facing such a style of opponent.
As for the last match with Hong Kong, China. As explained above, the results are good, but the process is actually not satisfactory.
The highlight of the national football selection team, or arguably the biggest highlight is the attitude of the game - this team has left the impression of limited strength but enough hard work to the outside world since the previous Dubai Cup, which can be said to have been continued in this East Asian Cup, which is also the reason why the outside world has given a certain praise. Secondly, the team's defensive organization is relatively qualified, but in addition, whether it is the individual ability of the players or the overall cooperation of the team, whether it is from defense to attack or from attack to defense, whether it is the ability to read the game or the ability to deal with the scene, it is really lackluster. In other words, it is truly called "inferior to people".
The harsh reality is that in the next 10 to 15 years, there will be almost no substantial improvement at the national team level: the members of this group of national football selection teams will be the main force of the 2030 World Cup qualifiers, and it is difficult to place high hopes on the current personal ability and technical and tactical ability; The 2001 and 2003 age groups are the main players in the 2034 World Cup qualifiers, and it is also difficult to have a big improvement; As for the 2038 World Cup, it is necessary to rely on the 05 and 07 generations, but these players have lacked high-quality competitions in the past two years, and there have been big problems in the training process, which actually applies to the 01 and 03 generations as well.
Perhaps, facing the harsh reality with a positive attitude is the only thing that can be done, just like this national football selection team, it has experienced multiple difficulties: players lack of opportunities to exercise in the league, long-term lack of international competitions, several over-aged players before the trip suffered injuries that seriously reduced the strength of the team, including the first game was beaten by the South Korean team... But they did not give up, they are still fighting, and they have used this struggle to achieve results that exceed expectations.
Perhaps, this is the biggest significance of this national football selection team's East Asian Cup tour.