Is the new national Olympic team eager to participate in the league “U21 replaces U23” reality?
On February 27th, the 2001-age U21 National Youth Team, the new National Olympic Men’s Football Team, who were preparing for the competition in Shanghai, had a warm-up match with the Chinese Super League Shanghai Haigang Reserve Team and Tianjin Jinmen Tigers, and the results were 2-0. Win, lose 0 to 1. The coaching staff of the new Olympic team with Cheng Yaodong as the coach are satisfied with the warm-up quality and the performance of the players.
50 players warm-up match with one win and one loss
Affected by the epidemic, the 2001-age U21 National Youth Team, that is, the new National Olympic Team, which is preparing for the competition in Shanghai, cannot implement the international warm-up in the near future.
A total of 50 players have been selected for the current national Olympic team training lineup. The coaching staff recruited so many players mainly to further examine the comprehensive ability of elite players of the right age and to strengthen their running-in 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 the game on the followingnoon 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. 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 regarding two years.
It’s more valuable to work out small
From the perspective of the warm-up process, the boys of the Olympic team have benefited a lot from playing once morest 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, being able to perform in the warm-up matches is 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 cannot be implemented in the short term, the lag behind the new national Olympic team on the starting line of international competition will be further exacerbated.
The Olympic team is still eager to participate in the Chinese League in the new season. “As an Olympic-aged team, the players are not too young. Players of the same age as the strong teams in Asian football have already played the main force in the professional league, and some have even gone abroad, while our players are in the local middle and lower leagues and even If you can’t play football, how can you compete with others? So if you can participate in the league, this team will try to participate in higher-level competitions as much as possible, and the training value of playing small games is of course greater.” The insider said.
There are proposals for U21 to replace U23 policy
At present, the promotion and relegation plans of leagues at all levels have not been finalized, and 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 preparatory team of the Chinese Football Association and the Chinese Football Federation has 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 competitions, the quality of competition in the U21 league is significantly inferior.
In this context, the proposal for a “U21 player policy to replace the U23 player policy” came into being. Since the U23 player policy has been implemented for many seasons before, the revision of the rules will involve many issues such as the introduction of personnel and reserves of each club. Therefore, the Chinese Football Association and the Chinese Football Federation preparatory team need to carefully consider related issues.
Text / Newspaper reporter Xiao Xun