The "mixed" national football team will play in the East Asia Cup
Zhang Yuning, Wu Xi and Jiang Guangtai are all among the candidates for recruitment
After the Japan Football Association and the Korean Football Association have successively confirmed the assignment of the men's national football team composed of players from their own professional leagues to participate in this year's East Asia Cup, the Chinese Football Association will select a representative team to attract attention from all walks of life.
On the 25th, a reporter from Beijing Youth Daily learned that since the East Asia Cup is an A-level event certified by FIFA, according to the consensus reached by the East Asian Football Federation, each participating team will be represented as a "member association representative team (national team) regardless of the age structure of the players. team)”.
Taking into account the preparations for the Asian Games and the 2023 Asian Cup, the Chinese Football Association will most likely select a national men's football team that is mainly composed of players of the 1999 age group and mixed with some over-age elite players to participate in this event.
The East Asia Cup is an international A-level event
The 2022 East Asia Cup Football Championship (East Asian Final Four) originally planned to be held in China was relocated to Japan for some reason.
It is understood that this event is a high-quality event launched by the member associations of the East Asian Football Federation to promote the development of football in countries (regions) in the region. competition.
Considering that their respective national teams have entered the final stage of the Qatar World Cup, the Japan Football Association and the Korean Football Association decided to assign national teams composed of elite players from their respective leagues to participate in this East Asia Cup in order to cooperate with their respective national teams to inspect players and train their teams.
Prior to this, the Chinese Football Association had planned to send a men's football team, mainly composed of players of the 1999 age group, to Japan to participate in the competition, taking into account the needs of preparations for the Hangzhou Asian Games.
However, with the postponement of the Hangzhou Asian Games, the relevant parties have to reconsider what kind of men's football team will be selected by the Chinese Football Association.
"Playing the East Asian Cup" is a must
It should be noted that although the East Asia Cup is an international A-level event, although the ranking point coefficient is lower than that of major competitions such as the World Preliminaries and Asian Preliminaries, it will still have an impact on the international ranking points of each team. Fractionation has an impact.
The Chinese team is currently ranked 78th in the world and 11th in the AFC.
Since the end of the Qatar World Preliminary Tournament at the end of March this year, the team has not participated in any competitions.
And there is a high probability that other international competitions cannot be implemented during the international competition day cycle (September) before the Qatar World Cup kicks off. No competition means that no new international ranking points will be obtained.
However, most of the AFC member association representative teams (national teams) have arranged a sufficient number of international competitions (including Asian Cup qualifiers and international warm-up matches) in June and September this year.
Teams whose international rankings are closer to the Chinese team may take advantage of this opportunity to overtake the Chinese team in the rankings (for example, the Uzbekistan team has surpassed the Chinese team).
Once the Chinese team's ranking in the AFC falls further, it is likely to miss the second position in the Asian Cup next year, which means that the possibility of them encountering more rivals in the group stage will increase.
From the perspective of maintaining the competitive interests of the Chinese team, "playing the East Asia Cup well" is a must for the Chinese Football Association.
In addition, the East Asia Cup is not only an important warm-up for preparing for the Asian Games football match, but also an important training for the Chinese team before the Asian Cup next year.
Although the answer to the question of whether the current national football coach Li Xiaopeng will stay or stay has not been officially confirmed as of now, the East Asian Cup has become the only Chinese team this year under the circumstance that the Chinese Football Association cannot visit and participate in the competition and cannot invite foreign teams to come to China to warm up. training opportunities.
No matter who is in charge of the national football team in the future, the Chinese team should make full use of this opportunity to train the team.
New and old players "mixed" team
Judging from the personnel situation, among the players of the 1999 age group, Dai Weijun, Zhu Chenjie and other players have represented the national team as the main force in the Qatar World Preliminaries.
Elite players of this age group are also an important force for the national team to compete in the Asian Cup in the future.
From this perspective, the Chinese team that appeared in this East Asian Cup will build a "prototype" that will impact next year's World Cup and the next World Preliminaries.
If nothing else, the Chinese Football Association will select a team of players in the 1999 age group, together with some "overage" players, to form a national football team to compete in Japan.
It is reported that the Chinese Football Association and the coaching staff headed by Jankovic have recently communicated about the recruitment of players, and all parties have done some research on the prospects of the recruitment of target candidates.
Before that, three overage players, Zhang Yuning, Wu Xi, and Zhang Linpeng, had participated in the joint training of the 1999 age group, and they were also the key candidates for the Chinese team's expedition.
In addition, a few international players, including naturalized player Jiang Guangtai, are also on the list of candidates for recruitment. Whether the recruitment can finally be recruited requires active communication between the Chinese Football Association and the club.
It should be noted that FIFA has decided to increase the number of players from each participating team in the Qatar World Cup finals from 23 to 26 in the previous edition. Therefore, the East Asian Football Federation will most likely implement the East Asian Cup teams according to this standard. Enrollment limit rules.
Text/Reporter Xiao Xun