Although the Chinese Super League has not yet determined the competition area and schedule, after many efforts, the two Shanghai teams have entered the Dalian competition area and began to isolate. This is one of the few news that can make fans feel excited about Chinese football in the past three months. At present, the preparatory group of the Chinese Football Association and the Chinese Professional Federation are working hard to complete the confirmation of the third division. If nothing else, the Chinese Super League is expected to start on May 27, and the news of the postponement of the Hangzhou Asian Games in September also makes the Chinese Super League this season ” It is possible for 18 teams to play 34 rounds without New Year’s Eve.
The Olympic Council of Asia announced last week that the 19th Asian Games, originally scheduled to be held in Hangzhou from September 10 to 25, would be postponed, and the new schedule will be announced after all parties have agreed. In the previous schedule of the new season of the Chinese Super League, the Hangzhou Asian Games needed to transfer multiple teams of U23 players to prepare for the competition, so the league was suspended in September and changed to the FA Cup. Now that the Asian Games are postponed, the league can proceed normally, and the FA Cup can be referred to above. Season schedules are inserted during the league, eliminating the need to take up full time slots that can last up to several weeks.
However, the news of the “Asian Games postponement” that makes time for the professional leagues is not good for the national football team. The national football team has always been short of long-term training, but it lacks a high-level competition platform, so that some people in the industry lack comparison and reference. Instead, it is better to pay attention to it for a long time. “Enthusiastic fans” of Asian football know more about the strength of the national football team: the national football team in the 2019 Asian Cup finally ranked 6th, followed by the Qatar World Cup Asian Top 40 (group stage opponents are Maldives, Guam, Philippines, Syria) qualifying Entered the top 12 (same group with Japan, Saudi Arabia, Australia, Oman, and Vietnam), and lost to Saudi Arabia at 0:2 on March 30. The national football team only beat Vietnam in 10 games in the top 12. In one game, only 6 points were placed in the bottom two (the qualifying team Saudi Arabia 23 points, Japan 22 points, the play-off team Australia 15 points), the latest Asian ranking dropped to 10th.
Based on the comprehensive performance analysis of the top 12 teams, it is not easy for the national football team to stabilize in the top eight in Asia in the short term. In the next three years, the men’s national football team will face competition tasks, one is the local Asian Cup next year, the other is the 2024 Paris Olympics qualifiers, and the third is the 2026 US-Canada-Mexico World Cup qualifiers in a new cycle. Among them, the Paris Olympics. There are only 3 places for Asian teams in football competitions, and the competitiveness of the U23 national youth team is not enough to complete the impact task. Therefore, it is particularly important for the national football team to use the local Asian Cup to complete the replacement of old and new for the “World Cup strategy”. This time, the Hangzhou Asian Games If it is postponed, the U23 national football team that was originally scheduled to participate will lose the actual combat stage with the most training value (the Asian Games football age limit policy is in line with the Olympics).
According to the U23 national football coach Jankovic, the team’s outstanding performance in the UAE Dubai Cup Invitational Tournament (4:2 victory over Thailand) gave the coaching staff confidence, and the players hoped to use a good result that exceeded expectations. The “home report performance” of the Asian Games has been completed. Now the Asian Games have been postponed, and the U23 national football team only has the East Asian Cup Invitational Tournament in July to continue its mission. The 4 participating teams are China, Hong Kong, Japan, and South Korea. Whether the U23 national football team will have overage players to help out at that time will need to be matched according to the Japanese and South Korean teams.
Compared with opponents of the same age, the U23 national football team has lost many high-level competition opportunities: the U23 Asian Cup will be held in Uzbekistan next month, and the U23 national football team announced last year to abandon the qualifiers, which means that Chinese fans can only watch from the perspective of bystanders. Observe the highest level U23 arena in Asia, and the 16 teams in the final round include not only the first-tier Asian teams such as Japan, South Korea, Iran, Australia, and Saudi Arabia, but also the second-tier teams such as Qatar, Jordan, Iraq, Kuwait, Thailand, and Vietnam. The U23 national football team cannot participate in the team, and the loss is self-evident.
Therefore, U23 players will be promoted to the national football team after losing this year’s U23 Asian Cup and the Asian Games stage, which may bring a series of chain reactions: next year’s home Asian Cup will not be allowed to lose, but the “trade-in” process is not smooth, the national football team only depends on the convenience of the schedule It is not enough to achieve the competition goal. What’s more, past experience shows that in the U23 Asian Cup and the Asian Games, teams with more planning and confidence will usually use younger U21 players to join the competition. The team wants to “turn over the whole system” and become a strong Asian team again. It seems that the initiative cannot be completely in their own hands.
This newspaper, Beijing, May 9th
China Youth Daily, China Youth Daily reporter Guo Jian Source: China Youth Daily