reporter Bai Guohua reported This is Kashima Antlers' second year participating in the Evergrande International Championship Cup. Minister of Kashima Antler Breeding Department (similar to the youth training director of domestic clubs) Yuudai Takashima has been doing a lot in China over the years and has his own understanding of Chinese football, especially Chinese youth training.
interview was held on the night of Kashima Antlers tied Hebei Huaxia 1-1. What impresses the most is the crisis awareness of Japanese footballers like Takashima Yudai. Although the youth training of Japanese football is far ahead of China in terms of current results, in Takashima's view, China has potential that Japan cannot match.
A person who is better than you works harder than you, can you sit still? In fact, shouldn’t it be Chinese football that should be full of crisis? !
◆"Football": The age of the players participating in this competition is one year younger than Evergrande Football School and Hebei China Fortune Land Development, but Kashima Antlers still control the scene in the game. I feel that the gap in strength is quite obvious. Can this reflect the gap in youth training in China and Japan?
Takashima Yudai: This time we did send more players from the 2003 age group. The reason is that before coming to participate in the competition, there was also a youth training exchange match between various teams in Japan. This game caused seven or eight players to be injured, so there will be more players from the 2003 age group this time. Of course, the players from the 2003 age group who came this time are also the best players in our team.
Although there is a gap between 1 and 2 years old in age, after playing football games, the age gap may not necessarily be reflected in strength. It mainly depends on how each team controls the rhythm and whether the things you want to play are and . Although we can say that we are playing against China Fortune Land Development in the second half of today's game (Kashima Antlers vs. Hebei China Fortune Land Development) in the first half, China Fortune Land Development played much better than us.
◆ This time, we came to participate in the Evergrande International Champions League Kashima Antlers team . What level is probably at in Japan?
The teams we came to participate this time are composed of players aged 16 to 17. The Japanese youth training team members are 16, 17 and 18 years old. The entire team is considered the team's U18 team. The Japanese national youth training team is divided into two districts, and our Kashima Kaornet U18 is one of the top 10 teams in the East District of Japan. Last year, we won the East District championship, and the East District competition has just begun this year. What is the concept of
10 top youth training teams? Japan's youth training is the shape of a pyramid. It starts from the lowest level of competition, starts from regional competitions, until the municipal level and then county level (equivalent to the province of China), and finally to the national level. The national youth training team competitions are divided into two levels A and B. Only when the Class B team wins the championship can they be upgraded to Class A, and then they have to win the championship in the Class A League to become 10 top youth training teams.
▲Takashima Yuda
◆ The players in this game No. 8 (Ishizu Kuai) and No. 10 (Ayutake Shishi) performed very well. One was responsible for controlling the rhythm and the other was creative in the offense. Can you introduce their situation?
You see it very accurately. The two players participated in the Evergrande Cup last year. It can be said that with the experience of the Evergrande Cup, they are already old seniors in the team, so their performance will be relatively better. But if we use our standards to measure it, I think they played very ordinary today and have not met the requirements yet. I hope they will play better in the future.
◆ Are there many players of their level in Japan? Are they likely to become professional players?
To be honest, at their age, there are many Japanese players of this level. Especially at No. 8, he is still short. The two of them joined our selection team when they were very young, and they have been going to this day. I personally hope that they will become professional players, but this is just my hope. For the club, we have created an environment for players to fully utilize it. For us, the environment has been designed for them, and whether they can become successful in the end depends on their own efforts.
▲1 meter 62 Ishizu Kui is considered difficult to become a professional player by Takashima
◆ I heard that there are still Chinese players in the Kashima Antlers team. Can you tell me the situation?
This time we bring a Chinese player (Chen Xiangyu). We now have a lot of youth training cooperation with China. Since we bring Chen Xiang Yu, we will give him a chance to perform. Chen Xiangyu is a player who is very fast and tall, because today's game is quite stalemate, and the coach did not arrange for him to play. He will definitely be arranged for him to play in the subsequent games. Everyone can pay more attention to him.
Chen Xiangyu came to Kashima Antlers to try out for a few days at the end of last year. Because he performed well, he joined our youth training team at the beginning of this year. It has only been about three months now, and the time is relatively short. Chen Xiangyu just started school in a local Japanese school, so he still had to continue working hard on language. He already knew some football language, but daily language needs to be learned.
In terms of his adaptability, because there is also a Chinese child in our team. He has been in the team for more than a year and is studying in a local school. His Japanese language can reach a simple communication state. With the help of this Chinese teammate, Chen Xiangyu's integration into the team is still ideal.
▲No. 11 Chen Xiangyu, who is being tried in Kashima,
◆"Football": Chinese youth training practitioners, media and fans are very envious of Japanese youth's very perfect competition system. It seems difficult to achieve this in the Chinese football circle.
In fact, Japanese football youth training should be thanked to campus football , because before the pyramid of Japanese professional football youth training was built, Japanese high school teams trained players. At the beginning, because there were fewer high school teams, they played match-based games like the current Evergrande Cup. Then the number of teams continued to expand in the development of these match-based games, and then this match-based game turned into a league system. After the league system was established, our club youth training entered the system. Then, because the clubs were more professional and perfect, the pyramid youth training mechanism was formed today.
◆Campus football is also popularizing in China now. It seems that it is developing well in primary schools, but in middle schools, many students will give up football due to academic pressure. How is this solved in Japan?
Japan's solution to this problem is the cultural atmosphere formed by the decades of campus football. Since Japanese schools highly recommend that students do sports, it may not be football. It can be traced back to decades or even hundreds of years ago. The concept of "students should exercise more" is deeply rooted in people's hearts. Although we are talking about football now, Japanese children can also choose events such as baseball and judo. Therefore, in this environment, Japanese students realize that they cannot just learn, nor can they just exercise without learning. This is the first aspect.
The second aspect is that when Japan's economy had not yet developed, Japanese parents also had the same idea as the current Chinese parents, hoping that their children would not play football and study more, and then get into a good university and have a good way out for life. But the times are constantly changing. Japanese parents in this era all hope that their children have their own dreams. If their children's dream is to play football, they will also support them. Now, these parents in their forties and fifties can only study and work when they were young. They have a special understanding of the mood of not being able to play football even if they liked it back then, so they hope that their children can live their ideal life.
Of course, children can play football, but it is not possible if they don’t study well. If they can’t learn well, you can actually give up football. If you like to play football, you have to sacrifice and contribute to football. This contribution includes learning. If you are unwilling to contribute to what you like, then don’t play football, which means you don’t like football.
The third point is in Japan. If you know a sports sport, especially those who have received special training, it is easier to be accepted than ordinary people when you are in the job. With the same opportunities and in the same company, people who know sports will be more likely to be favored because the company will feel that you are healthy and have a healthy personality.
In Japan, sports is an educational activity. Whether it is football or baseball, coaches will play an educational role in the guidance process. Companies will feel that these children who have received special sports training are relatively healthy in their bodies and minds. Will this happen in China? (Takashima Response Questioning Reporter)
◆It seems that this situation has not happened yet, but I am just wanting to ask you, do you think China will become like this in the future?
What changes will happen in Chinese society? I have no idea at all now.
◆What you just said about the fact that the Japanese economy has not yet developed, the decisions made by parents for their children's future were the same as those of Chinese parents. I agree with this point, but China's economic strength has slowly developed, and parents' concepts have begun to change. After the basic conditions of economic situation are improved, do you think China may experience a situation where Japanese parents support their children to pursue their dreams?
I think it will.
▲Takashima Yuda and Kashima Antlers, Jike, current technical director,
◆"Football": In recent years, you have come to China a lot. I feel that what changes have occurred in Chinese football youth training in recent years?
Take today's game between Kashima Antlers and Hebei China Fortune Land Development as an example. The head coach of the Hebei China Fortune Land Development youth team is also a Japanese coach, and it happens to be the coach I know. The result of the game is 1-1. Although in terms of the intensity of the confrontation and personal skills, the players of China Fortune Land Development are not as good as those of Kashima Antlers after their physical fitness declines, they have been running before the end of the game. In my opinion, it is precisely because of their constant running that the score can be maintained 1-1, otherwise Kashima Antlers can score again and win 2-1 or 3-1.
In the past few years, after the physical fitness of Chinese youth teams decreased by about 70 minutes of the game, they began to give up on the game and their running decreased. In this regard, China's youth training has made progress.
◆In recent years, there has been a saying in the Chinese football circle that they have learned youth training from Japan, but China has a vast territory, and the figures and playing styles of players in the north and south regions are very different. However, the differences in the styles and selection of Japanese youth training are not that big. What do you think of this difference?
Although I have been running to China in recent years and have had a lot of contact with the Chinese football youth training community, I don’t know very much about the details of Chinese football youth training, so I don’t know if it’s the most suitable one. However, to the extent I can understand, we have the same goal for Japanese football. Although we do things differently in different regions and have differences between regions in Japan, the goals we all have to do across the country are the same, but the operations to achieve this goal are different.
I know that China has National Games. Although Japan does not have National Games, each age group has regional and national games. We will select players of all ages to perform well in these games, and then recruit national teams to train. China can also select players of truly good performance in the National Games, gather them together and send them to national youth teams at all levels to practice, and then send them back to various clubs to continue training. In fact, there are also differences in the style of playing in different regions of Japanese football, especially the way of playing and training of campus football and club football is completely different.
▲The amazing attendance rate of the Japanese high school league
◆Do you think some characteristics are unique to Japanese players? For example, self-discipline and discipline?
Japanese young players do have several characteristics. The first point is that they pay great attention to collectiveness in their games abroad. Whether in terms of clothing or behavior, we emphasize collectiveness; the second point is that Japanese players' agility, including responding to situations on the court, is still very fast; the third point is that Japanese players are enthusiastic about football, so they have been practicing until now. They have high requirements for themselves. They keep asking themselves that tomorrow must be better than today.
◆China's youth training is currently far behind Japan, but do you think China also has an advantage?
China's biggest advantage is that there are many world-class star players playing football in the Chinese Super League. They are much higher than the foreign players in the J League in both fame and strength. With these star players around, Chinese players can learn their skills and professional qualities, and role models are around them, which is very helpful for growth. If this situation can continue, it will be of great help to Chinese football over time. If Chinese football cannot make progress under this situation, I cannot understand.
Yes, Japan's youth training is indeed ahead of China now, but both senior management and ordinary youth training coaches like me are now full of crisis. Whether in terms of financial resources or the energy invested by the entire country in football, Japan is currently unable to compare with China. With such neighbors around us, we are also afraid that we will be surpassed by China soon. After all, every country has its own problems, and Japan's future is visible. And no one knows what China's football will develop in five or ten years.
▲Yoda Takashima's crisis awareness is admirable
Only from the current national team level, there is an advantage of the Japanese team now that the current national team head coach Morikaichi has also served as the head coach of the U23 and U20 national teams before, so the continuity of the team has been retained. Morikaichi also prefers to use young people, so in recent years, more young players in Japan should emerge, which is a good thing for Japan's youth training.
