Hupu 07/15 Today, the Sports Department of people's daily published Shen Xiangfu's memories of the national youth team in the 1981-82 age group and his thoughts on youth training.
Whenever it comes to Chinese football, our eastern neighbor Japan is an unavoidable opponent. The professionalization of football in the two countries began almost at the same time in the 1990s, but it has entered a different development trajectory, and looking back on the past 30 years, there is a lot to think about.
Not long ago, the results of the qatar world cup asian top 12 draw were released, and the Chinese team was in the same group as the Japanese team. The last time the two teams met at a continental event was back in the 2004 Asian Cup in China.
In the face of this "familiar and unfamiliar" opponent, the gap in strength between the two sides is undeniable, but the fearful mentality is also undesirable. Whether and how Chinese football can catch up with its opponents is the question that really needs to be studied.
From defeat to Nick; from being looked down upon to gaining the approval of opponents – on this question, the national youth team in the 1981-82 age group, known as the "super platinum generation", has given its own answer.
Looking back at those years, the head coach of the team at that time, Shen Xiangfu, who is now in the elite echelon of Chongqing and still working hard for the youth training, has turned his thoughts back to 20 years ago...
"When we were preparing for the event, we looked at the Japanese team on the other side and thought, "They can still play football with their small bodies?"
I took over the national team in the 1981-82 age group around the beginning of 2000, when the players were eighteen or nineteen years old, and I didn't take them with me in the junior years. I remember when we were just two or three months old, we played a game against the Japanese national youth team in Qingdao and lost to them. The 0:2 score is on the one hand, but more importantly, the course of the game, and it also makes me feel very humiliated.
At that time, the physical condition of our team members was relatively good. At that time, I was particularly impressed, when we were preparing for the activity, we looked at the Japanese team opposite, and thought, even if they are small, they can still play football? As a result, when the game started, our players couldn't touch the ball at all. In that game we not only lost the result, but also the content.
I used to be in Japan, I knew the coach of the Japanese national youth team, and after the game, I went to talk to him, and I said that Japanese football has improved in the past two years. Japanese counterparts are usually very modest, but after that game, people directly replied to me, "As you can see, it is like this." "To tell you the truth, I was very embarrassed at the time, if there was a gap in the ground, I would like to quickly drill into it." This game allowed us to see the gap and was the beginning of our direct or indirect confrontation with the Japanese national youth team in the next 4 years.
"We can narrow the gap with Japan and South Korea, but only if youth training is on the right path."
After that match in Qingdao, in the semi-finals of the Asian Youth Championship in Iran in December 2000, we met again with the Japanese national youth and lost another 0:2. But compared to the meeting a few months ago, we had halftime this time to play good content. In the ensuing third-place battle, we defeated The Korean team and got the ticket to the World Youth Championship in Argentina. At this time, we were thinking about how to catch up with and surpass the Japanese team.
Japanese football is professionalized a year earlier than us, and they are also learning advanced football concepts from Brazil, the Netherlands, Germany and other countries, but one of Japan's success lies in the combination of advanced ideas and their own characteristics very well. From the earliest warm-up matches to the later World Youth Championships and asian games, we and the Japanese players of the same age have always had direct or indirect collisions. The technical ability and tactical awareness of the Japanese team are stronger than ours. But the Chinese players also have advantages, our speed, physical condition is better than them. If we can not be even technically and consciously, even if we are close to them, we have a chance to win.
In 2001, we and Nippon National Youth both participated in the Future Cup in Hong Kong. We were in a group with Argentina, Japan and Brazil in a group, and the Japanese team was very good at the time, and before the game, they said that they were going to play with Argentina in the final, which meant that they thought we couldn't play Argentina, and they could win Brazil. It turned out that Japan did meet Argentina, but they lost to Brazil and we won. At that time, everyone was staying in a hotel, and it felt like they were looking at the Chinese team no longer as they used to look down, but began to look down. A few months later, we invited them to Shanghai to play, and they won 1:0, and the content of the game was satisfactory.
From defeat to victory, this change is a source of confidence for me. If our youth training is on the right path, we can narrow the gap between japan and South Korea. A game may be won or lost, but if we can play our advantage, we are confident of winning the game. This is the most profound experience of our national youth team and the Japanese youth team in the four years of direct and indirect comparison.
"Youth plasticity is very strong, as long as you stick to two points, one is the right way to train, the other is a high level of competition."
So, what is the right path? In my opinion, just stick to two points, one is the right way to train and the other is to play at a high level. Like Japan, we must combine the characteristics of Chinese players to train the game.
Now, Shenzu and Chongqing Furen Middle School have cooperated to build an elite team for the U10-U13 age group, and as the youth training director of Shenzhen Football Club, I am conducting youth training in Chongqing. Previously, I also brought the 2024 Paris Olympic Games players to participate in the training camp in 2017, but now the work is different, is to explore the combination of sports and education, to cultivate high-level football players with moral, intellectual and physical development, and will expand other age groups in the later stage.
To be honest, we may still be experiencing the trough of Chinese football, the selection of materials is very limited, there are not many people, and there is a gap between the technical ability and the previous players, which is a fact.
Another of my feelings in the selection of materials is that we now have too few players with characteristics, one of which is that there are fewer players who are fast, and the other is that there are fewer left-footed players. In the history of Chinese football, in fact, there is no shortage of players with extremely fast speed, from the previous Li Huajun, Gu Guangming, Yang Yumin, to the later Xie Feng, Gao Feng, etc., always relying on their own speed to create opportunities, but now in a team, even two "fast horses" can not be found.
On the other hand, among the players I have coached, Xu Liang, Sun Xiang, Wang Xinxin, etc. are all excellent left-footed players. In the 1981-82 national youth team, as many as five players competed for a left winger position. Two or three left-footed players on a team of nearly 20 are already pretty good. Of course, left-footed players don't naturally mean better, but in general, left-footed players have good spirituality and understanding, and being able to provide different ideas on the field makes people feel very characteristic.
Starting from my own experience, cultivating young players cannot leave their own characteristics of speed and spirit, let alone simply from the height of the players to select and judge. Now some teams, in order to pursue results immediately, the physical condition of young players as the most important selection indicator, the lower the age group, the more obvious the physical condition advantage is, but in adulthood this advantage will slowly disappear. In the selection of materials, if you pay too much attention to physical indicators such as height, I am worried that the road will go astray.
"The lower leagues of high-level countries are also good opportunities for exercise."
The growth of young players is inseparable from a high level of competition. The 1981-82 national youth team finally reached the World Youth Championships and got a valuable opportunity to play against the world's strongest teams, which is very important for their growth.
Japan, South Korea, these strong teams, from the national junior team stage can always advance to the final circle of the World Junior Championship, and then to the Final Stage of the Asian Youth Championship to qualify, so as to continue to participate in the World Youth Championship, and then with the increase of age, they can represent the national Olympic team to participate in the Olympic Games until they are promoted to the national team. Moreover, after the World Championships and the World Junior Championships, the World Youth Championships and other stages of the World Series, this kind of growth is crucial. Many of our national junior and national youth teams can be said to be out of gears, unable to play out of Asia, and can only play some warm-up friendly matches, and the experience accumulated in this competition is completely different from the World Championship of the World Youth Championship.
When I coached the national youth team, I also paid great attention to creating opportunities to lead the team to high-level competitions. Once, the team went to Spain to train, played 6 games in 8 days, the players traveled back and forth in the bus, played very hard, but the quality of the games was very high, and there were many la Liga clubs such as Vallecano and the real Madrid reserve team. The game training in the training is a good exercise for young players in all aspects, which is very helpful for the improvement of the level of players at that time.
In order to get better training, I am also very supportive of young players staying in the Ocean. As a player, I also had the opportunity to play abroad earlier, but for various reasons I didn't go to Japan until the end of my career. I hope that more young players with potential go out, the premise is two points: one is that they have a certain comprehensive ability, and they must really have potential; second, the environment is suitable for your development, and you must go to high-level, football developed countries. Under the premise of meeting these two points, playing the game through your own efforts is the most important thing. From these two points, Wu Lei was very successful, going to a high level of Spain, a high level of Espanyol club, coupled with his ability and self-discipline, played the game, which is a good example.
In my opinion, a high level of football in a country, even playing in the sub-league, is suitable for our player development. When I was in Spain with the national team, in order to exercise as much as possible, I sometimes played with local amateur teams, and I wanted to play as long as there was a game, but these amateur teams were also very high-level, and as long as they relaxed a little, they would lose to others. Later, I took the elite team of Shanghai 95 to Spain to participate in the local regional league, not even the level of The West B, but the overall level of the league is also very high. There are a lot of good older players who have retired from the top teams to compete. So I told the players that as long as it is a high-level national league, even if the level is lower, it is also a good opportunity to exercise. As long as you can play the game.
(Editor: Yao Fan)