On the morning and afternoon of February 27, the 2001-age U21 National Youth Team, the new National Olympic Men’s Football Team, who were preparing for competition in Shanghai, had a warm-up match with the Chinese Super League Shanghai Haigang Reserve Team and Tianjin Jinmen Tigers. 2 to 0 to win, 0 to 1 small loss. Although affected by the large number of trainees, almost every player only got a half-time appearance, but the coaching staff of the New National Olympic Team, with Cheng Yaodong as the coach, warmed up the quality of the two games and the players showed in the game. The technical and tactical execution ability, mental state and physical condition are all satisfactory.
Through such warm-ups, the Olympic team has strengthened its awareness of the need to compete with strong teams.according toIt is reported that in the process of communication between the Chinese Football Association and the Chinese Football Federation’s preparatory team to communicate the competition plans of the professional leagues at all levels in the new season and the personnel playing methods, some people have proposed many times to continue to arrange the new Olympic team to participate in the new season of the Chinese League.
Another person suggested that once the team is unable to participate in the professional league in the new season, the event organizers should consider putting forward hard indicators for the U21 players of each club to appear in the first-team matches of the professional league at all levels, and even propose to directly replace it with the “U21 player policy” The current “U23 player policy” aims to “support” the national Olympic team to impact the Paris Olympics. All parties are still carefully considering various options.
Affected by the epidemic, the 2001-age U21 national youth team that is preparing for Shanghai, that is, the new national Olympic team, will not be able to implement the international warm-up in the near future. In this case, the team can only meet the needs of actual combat training through internal group confrontation and inviting domestic club teams.
A total of 50 players were selected for the training lineup of the national Olympic team in this issue. The coaching staff recruited so many players mainly in the hope of further examining the comprehensive abilities of elite players of the right age and strengthening their running-in with each other as early as possible. It is precisely because of the large number of players participating in the training that the coaching staff divides all the personnel into 4 groups to facilitate the arrangement of technical and tactical drills and competitions.
In the two warm-up matches on the 27th, 4 groups of teams participated in 4 half-time matches. As a result, in the morning game, the Chinese Olympic team won the harbor reserve team by 2 goals. Those who contributed to the team were Fernando from Shenhua and Chen Xiangyu from the Shenzhen team. In fact, the two joined the team in 2019 and 2020. Later, due to objective reasons, they were absent from the later training sessions. For example, Chen Xiangyu went to Japan to play football before, and he also represented the Guangdong team in the National Games last year, so the coaching staff also hoped to familiarize himself with his recent situation.
In the game on the afternoon of the 27th, the Olympic team had a small loss by 1 goal with the Jinmen Tigers first team including the international player Button. For the coaching staff of the Olympic team, there are two aspects that really moved them. First, the players’ mental state, technical and tactical execution, and physical condition in these two games were generally satisfactory. You must know that before the training camp, the vast majority of players had been absent from system training for more than a month, and players from China Second Club were affected by the early end of the league last season, and they were absent for more than 2 months.
However, from the perspective of the game on the 27th, the players generally performed well. “All the players played at half-time, and most of the running distances were close to or reached 5,000 meters, and some were even around 6,000 meters. Therefore, the physical condition is still OK. In addition, one of the two goals scored by the harbor reserve team was achieved through cooperation. One is to score through high-position pressing, which shows that our players are not afraid of mentally and physically in the face of opponents stronger than themselves. They are maturing a little bit.” A team insider commented.
Olympic team coach Cheng Yaodong
Another factor that pleases the coaching staff is the quality of the warm-up games. Affected by the epidemic, this young national team, which bears the heavy responsibility of impacting the Paris Olympics, has been unable to participate in any international warm-up matches for about two years. Affected by the pre-season preparation cycle of the professional league, it is also difficult for the team to invite high-level local professional clubs.
From the perspective of the warm-up process, the boys of the Olympic team have benefited a lot from playing against professional club teams whose technical ability and psychological quality are superior to their own. Especially for young players who are in marginal roles in professional clubs at all levels, if they can perform in such warm-up games, it will be very beneficial to quickly improve their self-confidence.
When it comes to warm-up, we have to revisit the real dilemma faced by this new Olympic team. Up to now, the Chinese Football Association and the preparatory group of the Chinese Football Federation have not publicly confirmed the schedule, competition system and competition scale of the professional leagues at all levels in the new season. In the process of communicating the specific competition plan, different people have different opinions on whether the Olympic team will continue to participate in the professional league. However, if the international warm-up competition is still implemented without hindrance in the short term, the lag behind the new Olympic team on the starting line of international competition will be further exacerbated.
At present, the Olympic team is still eager to participate in the Chinese League in the new season. “As an Olympic-aged team, the players of this team are not too young. Players of the same age as the strong teams in Asian football have already played the main force in professional leagues, and some have even gone abroad, while our players are in the local area. , The low-level leagues can’t even play football, how can they compete with others? So if they can participate in the league, this team will try to participate in higher-level competitions as much as possible. Great,” said a team insider.
It is reported that due to the current economic difficulties faced by domestic professional football and other factors, the promotion and relegation plans of leagues at all levels have not been finalized. The scale of the Chinese League Two in the new season has not yet been finalized. The Chinese Football Association has proposed to arrange the 2003-age national youth team to participate in the Chinese League Two in the new season, but whether the new Olympic team can participate in the Chinese League is still in doubt. Although the Chinese Football Association and the Chinese Football Federation preparatory team have launched the general framework of the new U21 club league competition plan involving the participation of the Chinese Super League and Chinese League One clubs at the professional league work meeting last week, the best players of the same age have been recruited by the club and are ready to participate in the first line. The team is in the Chinese Super League and the Chinese League One. Therefore, compared with ordinary adult series events, the competition quality of the U21 league is obviously much inferior. In other words, the U21 league provides very limited technical support for the Olympic team’s preparations for the Olympics.
In this context, the proposal for a “U21 player policy to replace the U23 player policy” came into being. However, since the U23 player policy has been implemented for many seasons before this, the revision of the rules will involve various issues such as the introduction and reserve of personnel of each club, which will inevitably lead to complex entanglements of interests. Therefore, the Chinese Football Association and the Chinese Football Federation are preparing Careful consideration should be given to the group’s response to related issues.
Text/Beijing Youth Daily reporter Xiao XunReturn to Sohu, see more