Two controversial evergreens of Chinese soccer, both originating from the same hotbed, one suffering abuse in the national football showdown, the other highly anticipated due to Xu Genbao's accolades!
It is often said that an iron camp produces more mobile soldiers, but there are actually two resident figures in our football world. What is so remarkable about them that they are hard to replace? A little contemplation will reveal that Chinese soccer seems to lack such talents, so who are these two?
Let's talk about the older one first, who is the head coach of the National Olympic team, Cheng Yaodong, who recently led the team to meet Malaysia, winning one and losing one!
Cheng Yaodong and Fan Zhiyi were once of the same generation, when Cheng Yaodong was a defender of Xu Genbao's national second team. Despite his small stature, he was favored by Xu Genbao. Xu Genbao once predicted that Cheng Yaodong would become a famous coach in the future. Cheng Yaodong has been the head coach of the Shanghai International Team since 2003, and will be the head coach of the National Olympic Team in 2023, making his coaching career more than twenty years. However, in this long coaching career, Cheng Yaodong has not been as brilliant as Xu Genbao expected.
Since 2018, Cheng Yaodong has been the national brand coach for five years. During these five years, the strength of the national team under his leadership has improved, but the performance has not seen any improvement, and the future prospects are worrying. Two days ago, in the match against Malaysia, the national Olympic team lost 0-1.
Despite winning the second match against the odds 2-1, the overall performance was still not as good as their opponents. Such a team, many of its players are expected to be the mainstay of the next World Cup qualifiers. I have to admit, Cheng Yaodong's coaching road is very difficult, even though the team's performance is bad, he is still sitting in the coach's seat.
Next, let's talk about that young player. He is not a youngster, he is 32 years old. He is Yan Junling, the goalkeeper of the national soccer team. Since Zeng Cheng withdrew from the national team, Yan Junling has been sitting in the position of the main goalkeeper, and no one can shake.
Yan Junling is tall with long arms and has the potential to be an excellent goalkeeper. In the games for the national soccer team, he also had a wonderful performance, but the overall performance is still not as good as Zeng Cheng. Not only that, Yan Junling is often bombarded by fans. After every national football game, Yan Chunling always become the target of criticism. In fact, this is not the fault of Yan Junling, after all, the national football team has a poor record, win less lose more. Once the loss, the goalkeeper naturally become a target, just as the team won, the striker will always be praised.
Fans even nicknamed Yan "The Regent" because Yan's goal would be pierced whenever the opponents shot accurately in a match. Despite the criticism, Yan's position in the national team has been very solid, with every manager from Lippi to Jankovic choosing him. What is it about him that baffles fans?
Like Yan Junling, Cheng Yaodong also came from Genbao Base. Nowadays, many active figures in Chinese soccer come from Genbao Base, which is the reason why Xu Genbao is known as the godfather of Chinese soccer youth!
