Warm-up match: U17 national junior 3-1 Marbella U19, departed for home, and regrouped on the 21st

After the last warm-up match with the Marbella U19 youth team led by head coach Yang Chen, the Chinese 2006 U17 national junior team ended its last warm-up match with the Marbella U19 youth team yesterday (9th) evening local time, and is scheduled to leave from Madrid today (10th) to return home. At this point, the half-month training of the national junior team in Spain has all ended, and tomorrow (11th) Beijing time, the team will return to Beijing, and then disband on the spot at the Capital Airport.

Image source—Cadiz Club official micro

(1) The quality of the seven warm-up sessions is high

The Chinese national junior team departed from Dubai, United Arab Emirates on March 25 and went directly to Marbella, Spain, and used a local football base for training and matches. After three days of adjustment, the national junior team began to enter the rhythm of "two days and one game" from March 28 to yesterday (9th), a total of seven warm-up matches. In order to ensure the effectiveness of the training, the national junior team clearly stated before going to Spain that it hoped to "play big with small", and required that the opponents arranged should be older than the national junior team. Therefore, the opponents of this trip to Spain are all the local Spanish club's U19 youth team, that is, the oldest registered player is born in 2004, of course, there are players born in 2005 or a few 2006 players can register in the club's U19 youth team.

Image source—Cadiz Club official micro

Since the national junior team is stationed in Marbella, from the perspective of travel, the opponents of the Spanish side are basically the U19 youth team in the Andalusian region. A total of 6 opponents were faced in the entire 7 warm-up matches, of which the "one head and one end" was the first warm-up match and the seventh (final) warm-up match were the same opponent, the local Marbella club's U19 Junior A team. And, interestingly, the Chinese national junior team all won by the same score of 3-1. In yesterday's last warm-up match, Wang Yudong, Zhang Junjie and Cui Taixu contributed to the national junior team. In fact, this arrangement is also to see whether the national junior team's own situation has improved through half a month of training and matches in Spain. From the actual situation of the game, it should be said that the situation is still good, of course, it may be that near the end of the Spanish training, the young players who have fought continuously have physical fatigue, and the running, confrontation, etc. of the game have declined, but the mental outlook of the team is still good, and it shows that the ability to play has improved significantly compared to when they first arrived in Spain.

Image source—Cadiz Club official micro

During his time in Spain, the national junior team participated in a total of seven warm-up matches, with a record of 4 wins, 1 draw and 2 defeats, and the overall record is still good. More importantly, in addition to the average age of these opponents being older than the Chinese national junior players, their results and rankings in the Spanish domestic youth leagues they participate in are also of certain quality.

Of the six opponents in total, the fourth match rival Cádiz U19 Junior B is a third-tier league team, playing in the Andalusian region's top youth league, and three are teams that play in Spain's top youth league, known as the League of Honor. [Note: The "División de Honor" is divided into seven groups according to geographical location, of which Group 4, the opponent of the national junior team meeting, has a total of 18 teams in the group, and the other six groups are 16 teams each. As familiar to domestic fans, He Xiaoke's current team belongs to Group 3. These three teams are currently ranked fifth, sixth, and tenth in the League of Honors.

The other two teams, Málaga B and their penultimate warm-up matches, Tyro Pichong U19, are currently participating in the second tier of the Spanish Football Federation's National U19 Youth League, also known as the National Youth League. Note: The Liga Nacional is geographically divided into 21 groups, each with 16 teams. Group 13, where the two opponents of the national youth are located, is also known as the "Eastern Andalusian Group". Among them, Tiro Pichong U19 team still played in the "Honor Division" league last season, but just relegated because of unsatisfactory results. In addition to the two national youth leagues, all regions of Spain organize their own youth leagues, the highest of which is the third level of the national U19 youth league. 】

(2) 23 players take turns

Of course, the opponent's level is relatively low, does not mean that the level is definitely not good, like the opponent Cadiz U19 youth B team that the national junior team lost in the first game of this trip to Spain, just participated in the top youth league of Andalusia, according to the order belongs to the third level of the national team. Therefore, it should be said that the overall quality of the opponents of the U17 national junior team's trip to Spain is still good, at least higher than when they warmed up with the youth team of the UAE club during the previous period in the UAE. And, because Spain are currently in the final stages of the season, the opponent's competitive form is also in the best of times. Therefore, the Spanish trip is more valuable for the national junior team, and it is more practical for the team to prepare for the upcoming U17 Asian Cup finals.

It is understood that a total of 23 players went to Spain to train this time. Previously, the national junior team went to Dubai, United Arab Emirates for training, a total of 30 players, after the Dubai training, some players returned to China early due to visa problems or injuries, unfortunately missed the trip to Spain. However, these players who returned early will still appear in the next national junior training team. Almost all of the 23 players of the team took turns in these seven warm-up matches, all of them had the opportunity to participate in the warm-up and experience the characteristics of Spanish football, and the coaching staff also tried and investigated various combinations in order to prepare for the future U17 Asian Cup.

During his time in Spain, Liu Jincheng, who is currently playing for the Moscaldo U19A team, also briefly visited the team for further investigation, because he was selected for the 2006 national junior team during his previous time at Shanghai Jixiang Club in China, and the current coaching staff of the national junior team knows relatively well about him, and this temporary call is also to see his development after coming to Spain up close.

After this trip to Spain, the national junior team will be disbanded when they return to Beijing, and the players will return to their original places to rest. On April 21, the national junior team will resume training in Yuxi to begin the final sprint for the U17 Asian Cup. During the Yuxi training, the national junior team mainly made a comprehensive summary of the situation exposed by the overseas training, and carried out targeted training, at the same time, because the opponents in the same group have also been clarified, the coaching staff will also carry out targeted technical and tactical deployment and drills for the three opponents in the group stage. By the end of May, the team plans to visit Japan again, again with the aim of arranging a number of warm-up matches, mainly warm-up matches. The team will then travel directly from Japan to Thailand for a final sprint for their first group game against Tajikistan on June 16.