U22 national football Asian Cup qualifier exit certain degree aggravated domestic talent lean predicament
Olympic age players have not been starting behind
On October 23, the 11th group match of the 5th U23 Asian Cup Qualifiers kicked off in Japan. The Cambodian U23 team defeated Hong Kong, China 4-2 in the first match.
Affected by the epidemic, China’s 1999 U22 national football team has confirmed to retire. This result undoubtedly has an impact on the development of Chinese youth football, and to a certain extent aggravated the embarrassment of the lack of domestic football talents.
In fact, the importance of participating in the U23 Asian Cup is not just about participating. The purpose of the AFC’s original launch of this event was to regard it as an important training for the national (regional) teams of the member associations to attack the Olympic Games. The original intention of the Football Association to merge this event with the final stage of the Olympic preliminaries.
Although the U23 Asian Cup is held every two years, and the fifth event is not linked to the Olympic Games, this event is undoubtedly an important insight into the level of talents of the same age group in the member associations (regions) of the AFC.
Every time the U23 Asian Cup is held in an even number, it will automatically become a new Olympic preliminary final stage event. For example, the 2nd in 2016 and the 4th in 2020 are both Olympic preliminaries.
For this reason, the Japan Football Association will appoint a team composed of players of the appropriate age for the new Olympic Games regardless of whether it is in odd or even numbers.
Even if the record is not satisfactory, the Japanese Football Association is unwilling to give up the opportunity to create practical training for their own Olympic-aged team.
It is understood that among the teams participating in the U23 Asian Cup qualifiers, with the exception of a few teams such as South Korea, most of the teams are conscious of following the example of the Japanese team and arranging for the Paris Olympic Games age-appropriate teams to participate.
For example, only three of the Australian team, which was originally in the same group as the Chinese U22 team, were players in the 1999-2000 age range, and the rest were all players born after January 1, 2001, that is, the Paris Olympic Games age-appropriate players.
The Indonesian team, which was originally in the same group as the Chinese U22 team, recruited 29 players to participate in the preparation and training for this event, of which 12 were players in the 1999-2000 age group, and the remaining 17 were all players in the 2001 age group.
The Cambodian team in the other group is also similar.
From this perspective, the new 2001-year-old Chinese Olympic team players have lost an important training opportunity.
Affected by the epidemic, it is difficult for national echelons at all levels to implement high-quality international warm-up matches in the near future.
They have not yet started on all fronts, and they are already in a lagging position.
Text/Reporter Xiao Zhe