Football newspaper special comment: The U20 national football team is out of the game and can also win applause

Reporter Lu Mi reported Although they conceded two goals in a row in extra time, lost 1-3 to championship favourites South Korea, and once again missed the World Youth Championship, this time, the young men of the U20 national youth can leave with their heads held high, and they almost created a "miracle" with hard work and hard work.

The 1-3 score is a reflection of the real strength gap, but the fighting spirit shown by the U20 national football team is enough to lift people and make fans feel very happy. The decline of Chinese football in the past few years has been all-round, but after ten years of drinking ice, the blood is difficult to cool, and the young men of the U20 national football team have shown the determination and courage of Chinese football not to give up with their enthusiasm and hard work, and won the applause and respect of the fans.

The match against South Korea, the outside world was unanimously optimistic before the game, after all, the strength of the national youth is not as good as the opponent, and the two main players Bai Lamu and Chen Zhexuan are suspended, and the coach Antonio's response is Bao Shengxin, Mu Talipu to replace them, as for tactics, it is still to give up possession and focus on counter-defense.

At the beginning of the game, the national youth team retreated as a whole, leaving only Eiffelding in the front court. The South Korean midfielder organizes the attack with the ball, facing the defensive wall composed of midfielders of the national youth team, which is difficult to penetrate. Throughout the first half, although South Korea had a chance to hit the third offensive zone of the national youth, there were few really threatening shots.

Such a situation exceeded each other's expectations, facing the iron barrel formation of the national blue, South Korea has no better way, the two sides engaged in hand-to-hand combat, and there were many fouls.

The strategy of the national youth team was to prevent South Korea from scoring and then seize the opponent's mistake to fight back, a strategy that worked at the beginning of the second half.

Just two minutes into the second half, South Korea made a mistake under the pressure of the national youth, and in the end, Mutalif pierced through the South Korean city, and that goal, he broke through the bottom line and scored at almost zero angle.

South Korean coach Kim In-jung is very anxious, he did not expect that he would actually fall behind, so what he can do, in addition to shouting, is to substitute, and even replace the replaced players to strengthen the attack.

In fact, if it were not for the "handball" in the Yang Minjie penalty area, South Korea would still not find a way to score, and the upset would have appeared. And there are different voices about the "handball" penalty itself - but the decision is set, and it cannot be changed, and it can only be accepted.

In overtime, the national youth physical fitness dropped significantly, many players had cramps, and the defensive intensity also came down, and finally conceded 2 goals in a row, lost the game 1-3, missed the top 4, and at the same time, also lost the qualification for the World Youth Championship.

From the data point of view, the national youth team lagged behind across the board, with a possession ratio of 23.6% to 76.4%, a shooting ratio of 6 to 19, and a shot ratio of 3 to 7.

After the game, the young boys cried, but they could leave with their heads held high this time, and the national youth coaching staff was also very satisfied with the performance of the players.

After drawing Kyrgyzstan and finishing second in the group and successfully advancing to the 1/4 final of the U20 Asian Cup, coach Antonio gave a passionate speech before a training session, saying: "Now that we are already in the top 8 in Asia, when the next national youth team participates in the U20 Asian Cup, it will not be the fourth tier team, it will jump to the first grade. This is what our national youth has earned by itself, and it has special significance and value. ”

Indeed, this team has gone through many, many things from its inception to its participation in the qualifiers to its entry into the finals.

The last time the national youth team qualified from the group was 9 years ago, people remember Wei Shihao, Gao Junyi, Tang Shi, Zhang Xiuwei and other players, since then, although those players did not meet expectations, but in the league, they have become the backbone, and in the national team, they are also in the year of play.

But in the following nine years, players of this age group were almost forgotten by Chinese fans because they had no chance.

The responsibility and pressure of this national youth team are actually far greater than those of previous sessions. In 2021, at the age of seventeen or eighteen, they need a lot of competitions to promote growth, including technology and experience, but for objective reasons, there are few opportunities, and when they reappear, everything has to start again. For more than two years, without the tempering of competitions and high-quality intensive training, it was difficult to play at a normal level, let alone achieve results.

Therefore, at the beginning, the outside world did not have too high expectations for this team. Of course, some people will say that the Japanese national youth in the same group also began to assemble about ten days before the competition, relatively speaking, the national youth began to practice as early as December last year. After watching the first match against Japan in the group stage, you can understand that aside from tactics and only talking about technology, the gap between this group of players of the national youth team and the players of the same age group of the Japanese team is huge.

Compared with the first-class teams in Asia, the national youth team has a significant gap in technology, including other national brands, how to make up for it? It is necessary to play more games, increase experience, and improve ability. Fortunately, last year's youth tournament gave these players a certain opportunity to exercise, in addition, there were some players who got a certain amount of playing time in the Chinese Super League and the Chinese League One, and their performance was also good.

For example, Hu Hetao, Eiffelding, Baihlamu, who have always started, and Mutalif, who can surprise everyone, whether it is a substitute or a starter.

It is possible to close the gap in capabilities, but it requires a more diligent attitude and, of course, an adequate platform.

In December last year, more than three months after the qualifiers, the national youth team assembled in Chongqing, when the team had entered a critical period of training. Shao Jiayi, the team leader and assistant coach, said in an interview at the time: "This training focuses on the three aspects of ideological style construction, strengthening physical fitness and improving technical and tactical ability, and the goal is to comprehensively improve the team's combat ability, ideological unity and execution. Training will be intense and fast-paced, and only then will breakthrough results be possible. ”

It can be said that the training achieved its goal, and the biggest feature of this national youth team is the high degree of unity of spiritual power and executive power. They are very young, although the current Chinese football environment is average, but for their own development, they have goals, and in the football career, they have the purest purity. Some of them belong to clubs that owe wages, and some can't play at the club, but the mental outlook they show on the pitch and the execution of the coach's tactics are impeccable. Therefore, even in the past few years, they lacked competition experience and had shortcomings in their own abilities, they were still able to catch up and complete the task of qualifying from the group after 9 years.

The head coach who led the national youth competition this time is the Spaniard Antonio, and he has been evaluated with mixed reviews from the outside world.

The so-called "derogatory", first of all, he is not as "diligent" as other foreign coaches coaching in China, compared to Jankovic's almost "crazy" attitude towards football, last year, Antonio spent almost two months in China, and more work seems to be done by the Chinese coaching staff.

Secondly, about Antonio's tactical thinking. It can be seen from the previous games that the technical and tactical skills of the national youth are not satisfactory - in terms of tactics, Antonio adopts a long-pass rushing style of play, with almost no midfield control and organization, completely relying on the individual ability of the players, where to play? In the main group stage, this style of play that abandons the midfield continues.

In fact, Antonio did not use such tactics when he led the national junior in the past, and when he was in charge of the U16 national junior seal, the Spaniards were maverick. From a practical point of view, in September 2019, the Asian Junior Championship qualifiers, the national junior team qualified at the top of the group, but due to the cancellation of the Asian Junior Championship, Antonio lost the opportunity to show himself on a bigger stage.

When it comes to the national youth, why did Antonio adopt this "non-mainstream" and lack of ornamental play? The reason is simple, that is, the current batch of players, the technical and tactical ability can not meet the requirements of ball control. Not only this national youth team, but also the national brand at all levels of the echelon, there is an extreme lack of capable organizational midfielders. The front and back ends of the national youth, that is, the forward line and the defender line, are relatively good, but the midfield is weak and there is no "engine". In fact, the national youth also tried to play strong passing, but the player's performance was very bad, and the central midfield passed and received the ball repeatedly, and Antonio was furious.

The use of this seemingly simple and crude tactic is Antonio's understanding and cognition of the team's personnel system, he did not bring players such as Liu Guobao, who had performed well in the qualifiers before, with obvious intentions, in fact, even if he did, he could only be on the bench.

Although Antonio spent very little time in China last year, it did not hinder his mental system and tactical considerations for the team. This national youth team, after 3 group games and 1 knockout match, has been clearly branded, using rhythm to switch and find the opponent's mistakes.

Chinese football has never lacked tactician masters, but how to reasonably apply it to Chinese players is the homework that many coaches have been doing. Such a seemingly "lying flat" but passionate Antonio gave a shot of strength when Chinese football needed stimulation the most.