Following the 2019 Asian Youth Championships, the National Olympic Games once again lost to the South Korean team in a life-and-death match, and as long as Japan defeated or drew with the United Arab Emirates, the National Olympic Games will not qualify for the Paris Olympics. The team, known as the weakest national Olympic team in history, still performed remarkably despite failing to win and in the penalty area.
The weakest country in history
Before the U23 Asian Cup, this National Olympic Games was called "the weakest national Olympic Games in history" by the media. In the 2019 Asian Youth Championship, the national youth team composed of the 01 age group missed the top 16 in Asia, and the national youth team composed of the 02 age group participated in the 2017 U16 Asian Youth Championship and also stopped in the group stage.
Compared with the previous National Olympic Games, the 97-year-old national youth team and the 98-year-old national youth team have participated in the Asian Youth Championship and the Asian Youth Championship finals, and the 93-year-old national youth team, the 94-year-old national youth team and the 89-year-old national Olympic team are the top eight levels in Asia, and the 85-year-old and 81-year-old are the top four levels of the Asian youth.
At the same time, the preparation stage of this national Olympic team is also full of twists and turns, and the U20 group is even the smallest number of teams registered in the history of the 2021 National Games. In the case that no one was available, Cheng Yaodong could only recruit a full 10 "skipping students", including 19-year-old Du Yuezheng and Zhu Yue, and 18-year-old Wang Yudong, which also made this National Olympic team the lowest average age in history.
U23亚洲杯前4届1胜11负
Since the inception of the 2014 Under-23 Asian Cup, the Olympic team has been poor in this competition, with the exception of a 3-0 win over Oman in the opening game as hosts in 2018.
In the two U23 Asian Cups in 2016 and 2020, the National Olympic Games lost all three games, and in 2020, they didn't even score a goal. In the previous 4 U23 Asian Cups, the National Olympic Games only achieved 1 win and 11 losses.
The previous four National Olympic Games were significantly stronger than this national Olympic team, however, their results in this event were also miserable.
Fought against two strong enemies, Japan and South Korea
To add insult to injury, the National Olympic Games are in the same group as Japan, South Korea, two first-class Asian teams. Japan's goal is to qualify for eight consecutive Olympic Games, while South Korea wants to be the only team to qualify for 10 consecutive Olympic Games.
Since the inception of the U23 Asian Cup, South Korea have remained unbeaten in the group stage, winning 12 and drawing 4 in 16 games after beating the United Arab Emirates, and are also the only team to remain unbeaten in the group stage of the U23 Asian Cup. In the first 4 U23 Asian Cup group stages, the South Korean team won 2 wins and 1 draw.
Not only that, but the schedule also led to the first match against Japan and the second match against South Korea. Before the second round, Huang Shanhong made it clear that he would go all out to get three points and advance early. In the Asian Youth Championship qualifiers 5 years ago, the national youth team coached by Cheng Yaodong lost to the South Korean national youth team with a score of 1-4.
The boss is in trouble
In fact, whether it was against Japan or South Korea, the national Olympic team created chances, especially in the first 30 minutes of the first game against South Korea, the national Olympic team scored five good chances. In successive matches against Japan and South Korea, Xie Wenneng missed a good chance to make a single shot, while Baihelam also missed a good chance twice, and Tao Qianglong hit the crossbar.
The game against South Korea was the best illustrative of the problem, as the Olympic team had five good chances to open the scoring in the first 25 minutes, but they wasted them one by one, and the South Korean team scored with the second shot. In the 69th minute of the game, after Xie Wenneng missed a good chance to score, the South Korean team immediately counterattacked and scored.
There is no doubt that the performance of the weakest national Olympic team in history exceeded the expectations of the media, and if they were more capable of seizing opportunities, this national Olympic team may not have lost to Japan and South Korea in a row, and their performance has also given fans some hope.
Media person Dong Lu pointed out, "The first point is to train a group of small players, and it is still a small wealth for the future." Secondly, we have gained experience through these two games, and the mistakes we have made should not be repeated. ”
In the final game of the group stage against the United Arab Emirates, will the Olympic team be able to achieve the goal of scoring one goal and winning one game?