Although South Korea won two and drew one of the three matches, the early round of the line, but still too happy. 19 years of undefeated record in the past, the two core of the national youth is missing close to the World Youth Championships!
At the U20 Asian Cup, the national youth team scored in Group D, where Saudi Arabia and Japan are former champions. I expected Kyrgyzstan to be the weakest opponent in the group, but I didn't expect the National Youth Team to be overwhelmed and play the worst of their three matches. Fortunately, the three armies tried to fight hard to score and managed to advance to the second top eight in the group.
This result was not expected by South Korea. In the second game of the group stage, the National Youth shut out Saudi Arabia 2-0. However, South Korea never paid attention to the National Youth, believing that their opponents would either be Japan or Saudi Arabia. South Korea must have known that the National Youth were more likely to advance. After all, the National Youth had the possibility of advancing even if they lost. However, South Korea is first and foremost ready to play hardball. If the National Youth dropped the ball, they would have to deal with Japan or Saudi Arabia, which is an outcome they don't want to see.
South Korea must have been heartily happy when Saudi Arabia lost 1-2 to Japan and the National Youth Football League (NYFL) drew 1-1 with Kyrgyzstan to get out of the tournament. South Korea is top of Group C, National Youth is second in Group D, and the two teams will meet in the last eight. South Korea is our bitter rival, both the National Youth and the National Football Team. But this time, South Korea should not be too happy or too early. 19 years of undefeated record may be ancient.
After defeating the National Youth Championship 2-0 in the final of the 2004 Asian Youth Championship, Korea maintained an undefeated record of 7 wins, 1 draw and 8 draws. Before the match, everyone thought the National Youth Championship would be slaughtered at will by Korea. Korea could go undefeated in the group stage and finish in the rotation. Although the National Youth Team advanced in the group stage, they were the worst performing team. Overall, the National Youth Team met South Korea and the U20 team's journey to the Asian Cup is over.
Not only that, but the national youth team paid a heavy price for advancing. In the match against Kyrgyzstan, the two core players of the national youth team, Baihe Lamu and Chen Zhexuan, both received yellow cards. They will also miss the last eight matches due to the accumulation of yellow cards. With no chance of winning, the national youth team was missing two generals. The media and fans naturally assumed that South Korea's place in the top four was a certainty. But soccer is round and anything can happen.
After three national youth matches, it basically relies on blood to persist, no tactics and poor basic skills. But we were wrong to think that such a national youth team would definitely lose. As the weakest team in Group D, the National Youth could advance after three games, so they could also pull off another miracle in the first eight games.
The goal of the national youth team's coaches, including the leader, is to beat South Korea, reach the semifinals and earn a spot in the world youth team. It's time to make Chinese soccer proud. It's also time for us to give the insufferable South Korea a taste of defeat so they won't dare to belittle Chinese soccer in the future.
