On the evening of April 16, Beijing time, the first round of the group stage of the U23 Asian Cup and 2024 Paris Olympic Games qualifiers will be held in Qatar, and the Chinese Olympic team coached by Cheng Yaodong will play against the Japanese Olympic team. Although the probability of qualifying after being divided into the "Group of Death" is very low, the Chinese Olympic team did not give up on itself, but continued to improve the team's level through intensive training. In addition, Cheng Yaodong also specially recruited a number of school-age players for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics this time to train young players in advance.
The Chinese Olympic team is about to qualify for the Paris Olympics.
The U23 Asian Cup will also determine Asia's qualification for the Paris Olympics. The Chinese Olympic team is in the same group as the Japanese team, the South Korean team and the United Arab Emirates team, and it is extremely difficult to qualify from the group. Based on the current situation of this year's Olympic team, when the final squad was decided, the players of the national youth team who participated in the U20 Asian Cup last year were taken seriously, and they have the experience of playing against Asian teams such as Japan, South Korea and Saudi Arabia. At the same time, the team also supplemented the school-age players of the next Chinese Olympic team, such as Du Yuezheng and Wang Yudong, and hoped that they could play a greater role in the next National Olympic team through the experience of this competition.
After personnel adjustments, the average age of the national Olympic team coached by Cheng Yaodong is 20.6 years old, setting a record for the youngest team since Xu Genbao coached the first Chinese Olympic team and participated in the Barcelona Olympic qualifiers. Among the young players, striker Du Yuezheng is 19 years old, and striker Wang Yudong is only 18 years old. It is reported that the vast majority of the players of the Chinese Olympic team are in very good physical condition, and the team will be based on defense and strive to score points in the game.
On November 5, 2019, Cheng Yaodong, head coach of China's U19 national youth team, spoke at a press conference. On the same day, the press conference of the AFC U19 Asian Youth Championship Qualifiers was held in Yangon, Myanmar. China's U19 national youth team will face Myanmar in the same group on November 6. Xinhua News Agency (photo by Wu Ang)
Cheng Yaodong said at the pre-match press conference, "We would like to thank the clubs of the Chinese Super League and the Chinese League for their support to the team. Tomorrow the game will start and what we ask of the players is actually very simple, we hope that they can calm down and play at their normal level and mentality. In the process of normal play, I also hope to achieve more ideal results. Our opponents in this group are all strong Asian teams, especially South Korea and Japan, which have all participated in the Olympics in a row, proving their dominance at this age group. Of course, we want to use this opportunity to play against strong teams, and it is also an opportunity for young players to get training, mainly to gain some valuable experience. ”
On March 21, the Chinese Olympic team traveled from China to Doha, Qatar, where the Olympic preliminaries were held, and then the team trained here for about three weeks. During this period, the whole team has played a total of 6 warm-up matches with 5 teams participating in this cup, and has achieved a record of 3 wins and 3 losses. Although in terms of strength, there is a relatively obvious gap between this national Olympic team and teams of the same age including Saudi Arabia, Uzbekistan, Japan and other countries. However, after a long period of preparation, the run-in within the Chinese Olympic team has been relatively in place, and the team's technical and tactical play has been relatively stable. A team insider said: "In terms of our current capabilities, we are relatively well prepared. ”
The Chinese Olympic team has recruited a number of young players to reserve talents for future training.
During the preparation for the Qatar Games, the Chinese team's working team also had a comprehensive understanding of many details including training and competition conditions, competition and referee penalty rules, and even made a response plan for the possible rainy weather on the match day. Of course, no matter how well prepared the Chinese Olympic team wants to achieve the ideal result in the game against the Japanese Olympic team, it also needs to fully demonstrate its technical level, excellent will and quality, and even super level performance in actual combat. The formation of the coaching staff is naturally very important. The coaching staff has always been a favourite of a back four. During the preparation and warm-up period, the team mostly used 4231 and 442 tactics. In the face of an opponent with outstanding offensive aggression like the Japanese team, the coaching staff will consciously strengthen the team's "waist" strength and strengthen the layering of the defense.
It is reported that the physical condition of the vast majority of the players of the Chinese Olympic team is very good. Coach Cheng Yaodong can calmly choose his favorite players to enter the starting lineup. If nothing else, players like Tao Qianglong, Xie Wenneng, Bai Helamu, Eiffelding, Duan Dezhi, who can gain a foothold in the club team, will become the main force of the National Olympic team to qualify, and Huang Zihao will most likely be the team's main goalkeeper.
Players of the Chinese team celebrate a goal on September 9, 2023. On the same day, in the second round of Group G of the 2024 Qatar U23 Asian Cup Qualifiers and the Paris Olympic Games Men's Asian Qualifying Tournament held in Dalian, Liaoning Province, the Chinese team defeated the Indian team 2-1. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Pan Yulong
In addition, as the team's front supervisor, Yang Xu, vice chairman of the Chinese Football Association, has already encouraged the whole team after arriving in Doha, and combined with Eiffelding's irrational behavior on the Internet to reply to netizens, he put forward a request to the players to "pass on positive energy". According to the game information, the Chinese Olympic team will play as an away team in the game on the 16th. However, because the Japanese Olympic team wears the traditional blue jersey, the Chinese Olympic team will still wear the red home team jersey to play against the opponent.
According to the rules, the four places for men's football at the Paris Olympics are allocated to the top three places in this year's U23 Asian Cup, as well as the winner of the play-off between the fourth place in the U23 Asian Cup and the fourth place Guinea in the African zone. The strength of the Chinese Olympic team is at the bottom of the participating teams, and there is little hope of entering Paris. In the history of Chinese football, except for the 1988 Seoul Olympic Games, the Chinese men's senior football team qualified for the Olympic Games, and since the Olympic men's football age was adjusted to the U23 age group, the Chinese Olympic team has never rushed out of Asia to qualify for the Olympic Games.
Column Editor-in-Chief: Chen Hua Text Editor: Chen Hua Title picture source: Xinhua News Agency
Source: Author: Rong Dao