According to the latest news, the Chinese team that will appear in the East Asian Cup will take the 1999 age group players as the core, and at the same time integrate part of the "overage" player power. The national football team and the U23 national football team at the end of March after the completion of the World Cup and the Dubai Cup respectively, the two teams assembled in the country, in Haikou launched a period of closed intensive training. At the end of the training, Wu Xi, Zhang Linpeng, Zhang Yuning and other core players of the national team, transferred to the U23 national football training camp and young players to train together, which is aimed at collaborating with the U23 national football team to prepare for the upcoming Hangzhou Asian Games.
However, due to the unexpected postponement of the Hangzhou Asian Games, the preparation strategy of the U23 national football team was also adjusted. In order to cope with the preparation needs of the Hangzhou Asian Games and the 2023 Asian Cup, the CFA finally decided to send a mixed national team consisting of elite players of different age groups to Japan to participate in the East Asian Cup. Given that the East Asian Cup is a world A-level tournament, its results are directly linked to the national football team's world ranking points, which will have an important impact on the team's group draw for future major qualifiers, so the coaching team has decided to recruit some "over-age players" on the basis of the above three players. For example, Jiang Guangtai, a defender from Guangzhou, and Tan Long, a center forward from Yatai, have become potential choices.
It should be noted that CFA always follows the principle of communication with clubs when recruiting players. Recently, the Association is actively studying and improving the preparation and game plan for the East Asian Cup, while strengthening communication with the heads of clubs.
It is worth paying attention to, in addition to the above five "over-age international players", this mixed national football team, there are also a considerable part of the candidate players are the backbone of the clubs. For example, Shenzhen's Dai Weijun, Shanghai Shenhua's Zhu Chenjie, Jiang Shenglong, Guangzhou's Wu Shaochong, etc., and Zhang Yuning and other "overage" international players, are their respective clubs' "thighs".
Due to the impact of the epidemic and the restrictions of the relevant anti-epidemic policy, once these players are confirmed to represent the national team to participate in the East Asian Cup, they will have to miss several rounds of Chinese Super League matches. For this reason, the CFA and the CFL preparatory team recently re-discussed with the clubs the arrangements for the second phase of the Super League matches. on July 3, there was news from the Super League that the start of the second phase of the tournament may be delayed from the original July 21 to around August 6, to ensure that as far as possible, after the return of international players to ensure that the league's smooth progress, to ensure that the tournament's fair competition. But as of now, the official has not yet released the exact news. The clubs are also waiting for the final confirmation of the results in order to prepare for the next stage of the tournament.
