The Chinese men's soccer team will leave for Auckland, New Zealand on the evening of March 19 for two warm-up matches as the international match day approaches. This will be the debut of Serbian head coach Jankovic after taking over the national soccer team. Prior to that, he has been training with his disciples in China for more than two weeks and played warm-up matches against two professional teams in the country.
Yankovic was once the head coach of the U23 national soccer team. His coaching style puts a strong emphasis on fitness, requiring players to have a body fat percentage of no more than 10%. After coming to the national soccer team, this concept continued. The training was very strict and intense for the international players. However, this also led to the early withdrawal of some older, physically unfit international players from this training, especially in the center back position, where the three generals Ren Hang, Jiang Guangtai and Liu Yiming were suddenly reduced.
Although Jankovic recruited several players again, the center back position is still tight. Only Zhang Linmiao, Li Ang and Wei Zhen are true center backs. Fortunately, the Asian Games team is also going to New Zealand for the tournament, and they almost synchronized their preparation and playing time as they stayed in the same hotel. If the national soccer team wants to add center backs as soon as possible, they can also recruit players from the Asian Games team. Zhu Chenjie and Jiang Shenglong from the Asian Games team are both center backs with international strength. The national soccer team didn't recruit them just to make them better prepared for the Hangzhou Asian Games.
Zhu Chenjie was born in August 2000 and is 1.85 meters tall. He currently plays for Shanghai Shenhua. He is also the first post-00 player to play in the history of the national soccer team. He was already a starter in the last World Cup qualifiers, contributing a goal and an assist in the Top 12. Jiang Shenglong was born in December 2000 and is 1.93 meters tall. He also plays for Shanghai Shenhua. His height and header advantage can help the team.
According to media reports, National Football Team Head Coach Jankovic and Asian Games Head Coach Djurdjevic will interact with both the teams after their rendezvous in New Zealand. The national soccer team will then represent the Asian Games as overage players. Do you think Zhu Chenjie and Jiang Shenglong will help the national soccer team?
