reporter Chen Yong reported On the evening of April 3, the U23 national team and the Chinese national team took the opportunity to return to China from West Asia. This time they went to West Asia, the U23 national team played 5 games in half a month, and their pace of fighting will not stop: in July this year, the U23 national team will play East Asian Cup , and in September, they will play in the Asian Games. Two consecutive events will be a very good exercise for the U23 national team.
U23 National Team This trip to West Asia is to participate in the Dubai Cup competition, with a total of 3 rounds of Dubai Cup competition. The U23 national team lost 0-1 against the UAE U23 team in the first round, and won 4-2 against the Thai U23 team in the second round. After the first two rounds, the U23 national team entered the top 4 (a total of 10 participating teams). In the third and fourth rank match, the U23 national team once again played against the UAE, but this time the U23 national team failed to get a more ideal score. Although the game process was more aggressive than the first game, the team conceded one goal after the start of the game and conceded two goals in a row in stoppage time, ending the Dubai Cup with a 0-3 defeat.
It is worth noting that although the purpose of this trip to West Asia is to participate in the Dubai Cup, the U23 national team also contacted two warm-up matches before and after the Dubai Cup. Before the Dubai Cup, it was against Abu Dhabi Wahda team, with the opponent's national team absent but foreign players played. As a result, the U23 national team performed tenaciously, draw 1-1; after the Dubai Cup, it was against UAE's second-tier team Liva FC team, and the U23 national team won 3-0. So far, the U23 national team played 5 games in this trip to West Asia, with a final record of 2 wins, 1 draw and 2 losses.
U23 national team is a 1999-age team. They do not have the task of the Olympics. In theory, the U23 Asian Cup and the Asian Games are the last two events they participated in. However, due to the epidemic, the U23 national team gave up the U23 Asian Cup qualifiers and missed the U23 Asian Cup - so, the team's mission in the traditional sense is the Asian Games. According to the rules, three overage players are allowed in the Asian Games, so the U23 national team can recruit three overage players to participate.
As for the East Asian Cup, in principle, the adult national team participates. But before this, China, Japan, South Korea and other countries sent out nominal national teams, and the competition was often not the strongest lineup of each team, but the second lineup of the national team, or even the national teams of the low-age national teams. In other words, the East Asian Cup has been responsible for assessing players and selecting talents for the Chinese, Japanese and Korean teams in recent years. For example, in the 2017 East Asian Cup, when Lippi led the team to participate, he recruited a group of young players including Wei Shihao , Gao Zhunyi , and Yang Liyu ; when Li Tie led the team to participate in the East Asian Cup in 2019, he also sent a relatively young lineup. Therefore, this time, China finally confirmed that the U23 national team of Yankovic will participate in the East Asian Cup, which is actually expected.
East Asian Cup was held in December in principle, but this year, due to the Qatar World Cup, the schedule was rescheduled to July, and the original host country was China. However, due to multiple reasons, China is now unable to advance according to the established plan. In this way, the East Asian Cup will be transferred to Japan or South Korea. As for the opponent, Japan has decided to send the U21 national team to participate, a team of the 2001 age group, with the goal of participating in the 2024 Olympics. South Korea has not yet confirmed the participating team, but it will definitely not be a genuine national team.
As mentioned in the previous report, for this U23 national football team, which has been plagued by the epidemic since its establishment and lacks international warm-up opportunities, every overseas competition is a very valuable exercise opportunity. In the context of the urgent need for renewal of the national team, many U23 players in this team who have previously entered the national team training list have also attracted much attention, such as Han Jiaqi , Wu Shaocong , Jiang Shenglong , Guo Tianyu , and Zhu Chenjie and Dai Weijun , which have played in the top 12 games.
Considering that the U23 national football team not only needs to shoulder the heavy responsibility of the national football team iteration, but also needs to prepare for the local event of Hangzhou Asian Games .It is not ruled out that this East Asian Cup will also recruit some over-age players under the background of Yankovic's team as the main framework - for example, 6 people including Zhang Yuning , Tong Lei , Yang Liyu, Yan Dinghao , Gao Tianyi and Duan Liuyu, who were previously selected for the national team or national football training list.
In a sense, the teams that appear on the East Asian Cup will be the prototype of the future Chinese men's football national team . Under this circumstance, the U23 national team's participation in the East Asian Cup and Asian Games is not only a training for this group of players, but also accumulating strength for the future national team.
