With the Asian Games approaching, the preparation for the men's soccer Asian Games team has entered the final sprint. For this year's Asian Games, the men's soccer competition has been given extremely high priority. On the one hand, as the host, we can make full use of the home field advantage and make every effort to strike a good result; on the other hand, the participating Men's Soccer Asian Games players are also an important force in the competition for the World Cup berth. Their current performance will determine the level of the national team in the next five years. From the debut of last year's East Asian Cup, some of the young players also showed great potential. Now that a year of preparation is drawing to a close, outsiders are expecting these players to deliver satisfactory results.
Of course, the improvement of the overall strength is not only the task of the U24 national soccer team, but also the whole national brand system, which needs to be inherited. Therefore, besides the U24, the U18 national soccer team is also attracting much attention. 43-year-old Shao Jiayi serves as the head of the coaching team. The highly configured arrangement has also brought more attention to the team, which gathers China's young talent in 2005 and is tasked with influencing the 2028 Olympic quota. According to the timetable, the U18 national football team has completed its assembly in late July and is now engaged in training and preparation.
In order to get to know the players better, Shao's coaching staff arranged a warm-up match. Considering that all three levels of professional leagues in China were in session, the U18 national soccer team chose the China Champions League as a warm-up. The opponent was Glory of Hebei Langfang. The latter is the new champion of the Chinese Champions League, not a strong team. According to the agreement, the two teams completed two matches in two days, and in the first round of the encounter, the Chinese team defeated their opponents with two goals.
Although the first victory was achieved in the warm-up matches, the victory was what was expected from the outside world, considering that the opponents were amateur teams, and it was more of a training team. In preparation for the Junior Games, the first round was scheduled on an artificial field and the second round returned to the natural grasslands. These two teams played with more excitement. Langfang City of Glory was also all the starters. This play beat the U18 national soccer team. Tan Fucheng entered the only goal of this game in the 14th minute.
In the end, the Chinese team suffered their first defeat in a warm-up match with an unexpected 0-1 loss. Since the opponent was only an amateur team, this result was also a surprise to the outside world. Naturally, the coaching staff of Shao Jiayi was still in the adaptation stage due to the short time of the team formation. As the training progresses, the strength of the team will gradually improve.
