When China's U17 national soccer team was forced to cancel training and warm-up matches in Japan in 2006, the team's U17 Asian Cup final group stage opponents, Tajikistan U17 and Saudi Arabia U17, were actively participating in warm-up or invitational tournaments so as to fight for the U17 Asian Cup.
The Chinese U17 Men's Football Team was scheduled to travel to Osaka, Japan on May 21st for training and warm-ups, but the day before their departure, they suddenly received the notice of "canceling the training trip to Japan". In any case, the team lost an important training opportunity before the start of the U17 Asian Cup Final.
The U17 national soccer team had to return to Yuxi on the 21st to prepare for the match. From there, there were no warm-up matches to play for about two weeks, from June 3 to Thailand, and the team's preparation was bound to be adversely affected.
Unlike the Chinese U17s, the team's two main competitors in the U17 Asia Cup group stage, Tajikistan U17s and Saudi Arabia U17s, both have extensive warm-up programs.
During these matches, Tajikistan's U17 team played in the annual U20 Central Asia Cup organized by the Central Asian Football Federation (CAFF) as a small team.
According to the competition plan of the Central Asian Football Federation (CAFF), the participating teams in this year's U20 Central Asia Cup should be the U18 teams of the relevant associations in the 2005 age group, and the teams are also planning to prepare for the qualifying round of the U20 Asian Cup in 2025 through this tournament. It is reported that the U18 teams of the 2005 age group are sent by the national football associations of Uzbekistan, Iran, Turkmenistan and Afghanistan.
The Tajikistan Football Federation has selected the U17 team for the 2006 age group and is working with the team to prepare for the U17 Asian Cup. This means that Tajikistan U17 will get four quality practical workouts in this tournament.
This year's U20 Central Asia Cup will be played by U18 and U17 teams from the five member associations of the Central Asian Football Federation (CAFF), with Kyrgyzstan's U18s unable to send a team to the tournament due to a trip to Russia for an invitational tournament. The tournament starts on May 21 in Dushanbe, Tajikistan.
Tajikistan U17s drew 1-1 with Afghanistan U18s in the second round on 22 May. Tajikistan U17s won 4-2 in the third round of matches on May 24, Turkmenistan U18s have an average age one year older than our team. Turkmenistan U18s beat Uzbekistan U18s 2-9 in the previous round.
Tajikistan U17s made it two wins out of two as they drew 1-1 with Uzbekistan U18s on May 26 in the fourth round of the tournament.
On May 28, Tajikistan U17s beat Iran U18s 1-2 in the final round of the tournament, thus finishing third behind Uzbekistan U18s and Iran U18s.
After the U20 Central Asia Cup, the Tajikistan national team will leave for Bangkok, Thailand on June 1 for final preparations and two warm-up matches against the Thai U17s. It is worth noting that the Tajikistan U17s have already played in their own second tier league, and they have accumulated significantly more experience than the Chinese U17s.
Saudi Arabia U17, the other group stage opponent of the U17 national football team, has also been busy training and warming up recently. On the evening of the 26th local time, they warmed up with the visiting Yemen U17 in Dammam and lost 0-1. Despite the fact that the Saudi U17s have recently gone undefeated for six consecutive matches, the Saudi U17s benefited from the fact that they were able to warm up with strong teams of their age from Ghana and Iran. Next, they will travel to Kuala Lumpur in early June and warm up with Malaysia U17s.
It is unclear whether China's U17s will get a chance to warm up in Thailand when they arrive there on June 3rd.
