Friends who care about Chinese football know one thing:
The quality of Chinese football youth training is very low, and it has become worse since 1995. At the turn of the century, several age groups are too poor to be looked at directly, which can be proved by the performance on the court and the achievements of national teams at all levels.
It is not the children who are to blame for this, but the historical criminals who have led Chinese football into the wrong path of "false gambling".
However, with the fall of the French mallet, the "fake gambling" of that year has been swept into the garbage heap of history. According to the law of development, the quality of youth training of Chinese football should rise, not to mention that after anti gambling and anti crime, Chinese football has ushered in an unprecedented "golden age".
So if we set a time point for the quality recovery of youth training, it will be 2005.
The number of this year is not an assumption, but many football players who have cultivated youth training think so.
"However, since 2005, there have been many players, so I think it is not difficult for Chinese football to return to the top level in Asia after another five to ten years." - Cheng Yaodong, the current head coach of the U21 national team.
"At that time, I felt that Chinese football began to improve after the age of 2005, because they were engaged in football training. It was precisely after the issuance of the Overall Plan for the Reform and Development of Chinese Football that the government paid attention to, the society was enthusiastic, and the teaching staff also came up" - Hu Zhaojun was trained by Xinghui Youth Training College.
"The batch of 05 is good, which is not less than that of 01. Because the age group of 05 has been paid attention to by the whole country, and the first number is more. In the batch of 99, the national championship of winter training, all the teams that can form a team have arrived, 35 teams, and at 05, there are many more teams" - Zhang Tao, the youth training coach of Luneng Football School.
The children born in 2005 are just 17 years old this year. It may take 8 to 10 years for them to become the backbone of Chinese football when they lose their old brother.
But before that, we can get a glimpse of the situation through some youth competitions.
During the National Day holiday, the 2023 Asian U-17 Cup qualifier was held in Australia. The Chinese U17 national team won two and lost one in three matches, and finally ranked second in six of the best groups and advanced to the Asian Youth Games.
The players who participated in the game were all born after January 1, 2006. According to the Chinese football convention, they are from 2006.
Because when the U17 World Cup and the Asian Cup (the past World Youth Games and the Asian Youth Games) were held, the participating teams would select players in even numbered years. However, when the U20 World Cup, the Asian Cup and the Olympic Games followed, the participating teams would select players in odd numbered years.
So there will be 06 national youth, but there will be no 06 national youth. Instead, there will be 05 national youth and 07 national youth. And because the players born after 2005 happen to be the right age players for the 2028 Olympic Games, there will be 05 national youth.
Although the mission of National Youth League 06 will end at the end of the World Youth League, most of these players will be diverted to the selection pool of National Youth League 05, and some smaller players will be diverted to the selection pool of National Youth League 07.
But one thing should be noted: this is the first time that Chinese football has appeared in a systematic way on the big match field since 2005.
Facts have proved that their performance is very good.
This trip to Australia to participate in the Asian Youth Games qualifier is one of the few opportunities for the boys to compete abroad in recent years, so in order to take advantage of the hard won window period, head coach Yang Chen and the boys came to Australia a month in advance to adapt to the venue and weather, and also had some warm-up matches with local youth teams.
So after a month's preparation, the team has made enough preparations, just waiting for the arrival of the war. You should know that this is not only the first official match of 2006 Junior High School, but also the first official match of Yang Chen as the head coach.
"We have made careful preparation and targeted deployment for each game, and I hope to present a wonderful game to the fans."
At the pre match press conference of the first game, Yang Chen said so, and the result of the game also confirmed his statement that 06 countries swept Cambodia 9-0 in the first game, which was doomed to be difficult.
Judging from the progress of the game, the players played very relaxed. They not only scored early in the 16th minute, but also handled the game calmly in front of the goal:
You should know that this is the first major competition of 2006 junior high school students. In addition, it is always famous for its good footwork skills in Southeast Asia. It was raining on the day of the game. The conditions of the field were not very ideal, but the players' performance was still very stable.
At a time when it is increasingly difficult for the current generation to win steadily on the Southeast Asian team, such a good start without suspense made many fans miss the good time when the national team played in the Southeast Asian team.
After the game, Yang Chen didn't seem very excited. On the one hand, he was very clear that this was just a small step on the way to promotion, and on the other hand, he gave the victory to the team's psychological experts.
"You may not understand that since the late stage of the Wuhan training, our team has specially invited a psychological expert to help our coach team young players with psychological guidance."
"The day before playing Cambodia, when the team had the last training session, I saw the players' state and felt very relaxed. At that time, I thought, 'If the players play in this psychological state, tomorrow's game will be interesting!'"
Young coaches always bring some new ideas, and these new ideas will also be reflected in the process and results of the game. The players in 2006 did not have much of the "fear of winning" mentality, and this stable psychological state also continued to the second game.
11-0, the national football team defeated the Northern Mariana Islands team. As always, it was easy, and more wonderful goals appeared:
Generally speaking, two victories and a total of 20 goal difference are enough to ensure that Guoshao will advance to the final round of the Asian Youth Games next year.
However, East Timor and Sri Lanka chose to withdraw before the start of the qualifying match, which made the schedule of the qualifying match vacant, and there were only three teams in other groups. As a result, the original rules for the first of the 10 groups and the second of the six groups with the best results to advance to the main match were facing changes.
In the end, when assessing the results of the second team, the organizing committee decided not to include the results of the second, fourth and fifth teams, which made the 11 goal difference between the national football team and the Northern Mariana Islands meaningless.
To win the qualification safely, the team must fight against Australia.
In theory, the competition of the youth group should not pay too much attention to the performance factors. It is more important to find problems in the competition and solve them after the competition.
So in the face of Australia, this is a game that should be fought with all strength, regardless of qualification. As Yang Chen mentioned before the game, the team's goal is to be the first in the group.
From a certain point of view, this is a game that is really worth training: the opponent has good strength, heavy competition pressure, and is in the opponent's home court.
As a result, in this game, 06 countries revealed some problems.
In the face of Nestry, an excellent player from Australia who played in the Australian Super League at the age of 16, there were few ways for 06 countries to do so, so they gave two penalty kicks:
Nestry hit one of the shots, and the team fell behind.
For other age groups, even the adult national team, the next is probably the collapse of the situation all the way, but the 06 countries have survived. It is really difficult for them to overcome Nestry's strong personal ability, but they can also use their own characteristics and abilities to bring enough trouble to Australia.
In the 24th minute of the game, they equalized the score:
This goal brought the two teams back to the same running line.
In the subsequent match, Cui Taixu's foul became the next turning point of the game. This red card made the team face more trouble in playing one player less. So after holding on for nearly 20 minutes, 2006 lost two goals in a row and lost to Australia 1-3:
Even so, the team also showed its tenacity, not only with the operation of almost breaking the goal by single riding:
Near the end of the game, there was another set piece break, which was judged offside by the linesman:
Such a defeat kept the boys in the second place in the competition group at 3 points and 7 goal difference.
Finally, after more than 10 hours of waiting, the final round results of several other competitors gradually came out, and 06 countries won the chance to compete in the main race next year.
Although the promotion still depends on the faces of other teams, the team's performance in the three games is commendable. No matter in the foot technique, or in the field play, especially in the third game, the team frequently encountered major blows. The team did not collapse, but fought with the opponent until the last moment of the final whistle.
In many cases, this is enough.
In any case, the 2006 Youth League has really lived up to everyone's expectations, and let friends who care about Chinese football see the hope that Chinese football can place after the age of 2005.
This is only a small step on the road to growth, but it can be a big step on the road to success.
These young men, like the 2003 National Youth League, who were previously qualified for the Asian Youth Championship, represent the future of Chinese football. Many people are looking forward to their early growth, so that Chinese football can return to its rightful place.
At that time, the suffering and torture experienced by Chinese fans along the way will no longer be completely meaningless.
Muzi
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