Recently, the Chinese men's national soccer team and the U24 Asian Games traveled to New Zealand to play warm-up matches against two New Zealand men's soccer teams. Meanwhile, the U17 national soccer team coached by 39-year-old national soccer player Yang Chen continued to prepare for the U17 Asian Cup in Dubai, UAE. However, their record continues to slump. They have lost three consecutive warm-up matches 0-1, three consecutive losses without scoring a single goal, and the coach has been criticized by fans as having no hope of making it to the World Junior Championships.
In contrast to the U20 men's soccer team led by foreign coach Antonio, the FA has local coach Yang Chen coaching the U17 men's soccer team. Last year, he led the team through the U17 Asian Cup qualifiers and managed to qualify for the final round, which starts in June this year. The goal is the 2023 World Youth Championship, which will be held in Peru. The last match was in 2005, after which they missed consecutive matches to even have time to reach the final round.
Now that Yang Chen is leading the team, fans are looking forward to the national junior team's return to the World Junior Championships after many years, so pre-tournament preparations are especially crucial.The U20 men's soccer team trained for a long time in the UAE and Croatia, eventually beating defending champion Saudi Arabia to rank second in the group, and now the U17 national soccer team is also in Dubai, UAE, and the warm-up record can directly reflect the effectiveness of the team's preparations.
This week, the U17 national soccer team welcomed a lot of warm-up matches, March 15 with Saudi Arabia U17 men's soccer team, eventually lost 0-1, met overseas warm-up, just came to Dubai need some time to adapt, but the second game against Gulph United U19, U17 national soccer team also lost 0-1, warm-up matches two consecutive losses, the state has not adjusted to the best state.
Three days later, the U17 national soccer team played a warm-up match against the Saudi Arabian U17 men's soccer team. This time, they lost with a score of 0-1. They lost their third consecutive warm-up game without scoring a single goal. The offensive end continued to be suppressed and failed to create opportunities to score shots. As the coach, Yang Chen naturally had a lot of responsibility.
For the continued slump in the U17 national soccer warm-ups, domestic fans criticized Yang Chen for not having the coaching ability to lead the team, apparently not as good as the U20 men's soccer coach Antonio, who some fans say is out of contract with the Soccer Association, and that it would be better for him to replace Yang Chen and lead the U17 national soccer team in the U17 Asian Cup, and perhaps have a chance to impact the World Junior Championships.
Statistically speaking, the Chinese men's soccer team last appeared in a world-class tournament or the 2008 Olympic Games held on our own doorstep. In the last 15 years, the U20 national soccer team failed at the World Youth Championships, responsible for the U17 national soccer team.
