Barton is set to join the National Football League Asian Games team, alongside Tan Long and Gao Tianyi, to form an overage lineup of players for the National Football League's Asian Games team, NorthJerseySports.com said.
According to the plan, the national soccer team and the Asian Games men's football team will kick off the new training on June 10th. It was not until the evening of the 5th that the rosters of the two teams were officially announced to the public. There are multiple reasons behind this change, including the injury situation in the professional league, as well as coach Jankovic's meticulous adjustments to the roster.
Prior to this, Zhang Linpeng, Wu Xi and Zhang Yuning had joined the joint training for the Men's Asian Games at the end of last year. However, more than a year later, the team's coaching change to Djurdjevic, Wu Xi and Zhang Yuning unfortunately injured, not in the national team training and warm-up matches in June. The Men's Asian Games coaching staff will also need to widen the pool of candidates for overage players to include new members such as Wu Lei, Deng Hanwen, Jiang Guangtai and Tan Long.
After observing the first 11 rounds of the first phase of the Chinese Super League (CSL), Djurdjevic has locked down a shortlist of overage internationals, including strikers Tan Long and Barton along with midfielder Gao Tianyi. Barton, a striker for Tianjin Jinmen Tigers, played almost full time in the first 11 rounds of the Chinese Super League, scoring four goals and registering two assists. At the end of March this year, Barton returned to the national team as one of the three players.
Looking at the individual qualities of the three overage players, Djurdjevic's selection intentions are clear. At the same time, he was also satisfied with the performance of the team's defense line led by Zhu Chenjie and Jiang Shenglong.
Considering that there are only two international match day cycles before the Hangzhou Asian Games soccer tournament, the team will focus on the main Asian Games squad in the warm-up matches. From now on, the list of candidates for overage players should remain stable, with Tan Long, Barton and Gao Tianyi expected to represent the overage players at the Asian Games.
