Original title: Many national men’s football teams are busy preparing for the game
Beijing Daily reporter Li Li
At present, the U20 national football team and the U17 national football team are training in Chongqing and Yuxi, Yunnan, respectively, to prepare for this year’s U20 Asian Cup and U17 Asian Cup. The U21 national football team and the U23 national football team will also gather and practice soon. Their important tasks in the future are the U23 Asian Cup, the Paris Olympic Asian qualifiers and the Hangzhou Asian Games.
The earliest U20 team gathered for four training sessions a day
The U20 Asian Cup will be held in Uzbekistan in March. In order to prepare for this event, the U20 national football team became the first team of all age groups to gather nationally. In the U20 Asian Cup group stage, their opponents were Saudi Arabia, Japan and Kyrgyzstan. After the assembly in Chongqing, the U20 national football team arranged military training in the first week of training-meal on time at 7:00 in the morning, two hours of ball training on the field at 8:30, indoor physical training at 11:30, and two sessions in the afternoon. One-hour military training class, and two-hour team development class after dinner. After a week of military training, “four trainings a day” was changed to “two trainings a day”, but the training intensity continued to increase. “The intensity of training must be higher than the intensity of the competition, otherwise the training will be meaningless and will not meet the confrontation requirements of the intercontinental competition.” The team leader and assistant coach Shao Jiayi said.
According to the plan, the U20 national football team will fly to Dubai next week to meet with the foreign coaching staff including head coach Antonio. During the stay in West Asia, the U20 national football team will have multiple warm-up matches with the UAE, Syria, and Oman teams. After that, he will go to Croatia for training, and then fly to Uzbekistan to participate in the U20 Asian Cup.
U17 inspects newcomers to strengthen the defense
On the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau at an altitude of 1,700 meters, U17 national football training has also reached a new height-even if it is a warm-up or basic technical exercises, it must be implemented in accordance with the requirements of the game. The U17 Asian Cup has not yet been drawn into groups. The U17 national football team is based on the overall tactics of “quick conversion”, giving full play to the resources and existing conditions at hand, and rehearsing and improving its own offensive system.
This year’s U17 Asian Cup was postponed to June 17 for some reason, which added nearly one and a half months of preparation for the U17 national football team. The main goal of this training camp is to inspect newcomers and strengthen the team’s defense. Head coach Yang Chen said that after the U17 Asian Cup qualifiers, the coaching staff made an in-depth summary, and made absorbing fresh blood and strengthening defensive strength the top priority. Among the 40 players participating in this training session, there are as many as 17 new faces.
U21 and U23 ready to go
The U21 national football team and the U23 national football team are also ready to go. The task of the U21 national football team is to hold the U23 Asian Cup and Paris Olympics Asian qualifiers in January 2024. The team will conduct overseas training after the Spring Festival. The task of the U23 national football team is to prepare for the Hangzhou Asian Games in September this year. Coach Jankovic has formulated a high-intensity preparation plan.
Of course, the most important national team is the national football team. They are expected to gather after the Spring Festival and go to New Zealand for training in March, shouldering the burden of the 2023 Qatar Asian Cup and the 2026 World Cup Asian qualifiers. In addition to gathering as soon as possible, another major problem for the national football team is to determine the candidate for the coach as soon as possible.