A duel between China and South Korea in U15 level soccer finally decided the result.After 90+5 minutes of hard work in the fifth round of Group A of the 2023 East Asian Football Confederation (EAFC) U15 Boys' Soccer Championship, China's U15 National Junior Footballers drew 1-1 with South Korea. In the end, with the goal difference, South Korea was overwhelmed and thus won the first place in Group A (below). Evergrande Soccer School is fantastic!
The U15 East Asia Cup is divided into two groups, with the top two teams in each group advancing to the semifinals. Meanwhile, Japan finished first in Group B and Chinese Taipei ranked second, so the semifinal matches were: China U15 vs Chinese Taipei U15 and Japan U15 vs Korea U15.
Having said that, we have to commend the young players of these U15 countries, not only the players but the coaching staff as well. Finishing first in the group! Hello, let the team successfully avoid the strongest Japanese team. Since the semi-final opponents were not strong, it was basically the equivalent of getting an early spot in the final.
This U15 national youth is a temporary formation of Evergrande Soccer School, coupled with strong individual reinforcements such as Luneng Soccer School, and the Japanese coach of Evergrande Soccer School, Masaki Nakamura, personally leads the team. Take this match as an example. Of the 11 starting players, Evergrande Soccer School alone had 8 players, and a similar ratio was seen in the previous matches.
Many fans are concerned about whether this is the strongest lineup of the U15 National Junior League! The answer is definitely not. This is because there is no need to screen a tournament like the U15 Junior Nationals once across the country. Usually, if the strongest team in the country is matched with other top players, they may achieve better results.
First of all, the players are basically players from Evergrande Soccer Schools, and the cooperation proficiency is definitely better than that of Hodgepodge. In this case, the players from other teams are chosen as supplements, mainly because of the individual weaknesses of Evergrande Soccer School players. This way of team formation not only avoids the confusion of temporary formation of small players of each team, but also improves the technical and tactical ability of Evergrande's team.
In addition, the U15 countries have the significance of advancing first in their group. In the past, Chinese soccer was often dominated by their opponents, and they were often eliminated because they met their strongest opponents when they finished second in their group. Now we're going to give South Korean soccer a taste of that, and let them have a strong clash with Japan, while we "sit back and watch the tigers fight" in a relaxed manner. Chinese soccer hasn't been this calm for a long time!
There is a lot of variability in a game of this nature for U15 due to the technical characteristics and physical development of the players not yet fully matured. The fact that we can now finish first in our group does not mean that players of this age group can meet Korean opponents again in a few years and they can still play so well. But at least for now, Chinese soccer for 15 year old players is not worse than Korean soccer. This can give Chinese soccer hope to a certain extent, and at the same time increase our confidence and patience to continue to engage in youth training.
