South Korea's national youth, although with two wins and a draw to lock the line in the early rounds, the joy is overflowing, but the myth of 19 years of undefeated has been shattered, the absence of two key players, the World Youth Championships journey is facing challenges!
In Group D of the U20 Asian Cup, the National Youth Football Team faced strong opponents such as Saudi Arabia and Japan. At first, I thought that Kyrgyzstan would be the weakest opponent in the group, but I didn't realize that the National Youth Football Team suffered unprecedented difficulties in three matches. Fortunately, all the players did their best and finally made it to the last eight as the second place in the group.
This result was unexpected by South Korea. The National Youth Football League (NYFL) beat Saudi Arabia 2-0 in their second group game, but South Korea did not put the NYFL in their sights, focusing only on Japan and Saudi Arabia. However, South Korea knew that the National Youth had the possibility of advancing, and even if they lost, they still had a chance to get out of the tournament. Therefore, they are ready to fight hard against the National Youth, and do not want to see the National Youth drop the ball and let Japan or Saudi Arabia advance.
South Korea will undoubtedly feel heartfelt joy when Saudi Arabia go down 1-2 to Japan and the National Youth Football League (NYFL) draw 1-1 with Kyrgyzstan to advance. The two teams will meet in the last eight, facing the traditional bitter rival of South Korea, the National Youth Football Team and the National Football Team are both highly challenged. But this time, South Korea should not be too complacent, nor should they celebrate too early, 19 years of undefeated record may become a thing of the past.
Looking back at the 2004 Asian Youth Championship final, South Korea beat the National Youth League 2-0 and have since gone undefeated with 7 wins, 1 draw and 8 draws. Before the tournament, it was widely expected that the National Youth would collapse under the carnage of South Korea. South Korea remained undefeated in the group stage and rotated their lineup, but the National Youth advanced with the worst record in the group. Facing South Korea, the National Youth's journey to the Asian Cup seems to have come to an end.
It's worth noting that the National Youth Football League paid a heavy price for advancing. The two core players, Baihramu and Chen Zhexuan, received yellow cards against Kyrgyzstan and will also miss the last eight matches. Faced with the lack of two big players, the media and fans generally believed that South Korea's entry into the top four was a foregone conclusion. But the beauty of soccer is that anything is possible.
After three intense matches, the National Youth team members stuck it out almost by sheer willpower, lacking tactics and basic skills. But we were very wrong to think that such a national youth team is bound to lose. As the weakest team in Group D, the National Youth managed to advance after three matches and is expected to create another miracle in the final eight.
The goal of the National Youth coaching team is to beat South Korea and advance to the semifinals to earn a spot in the World Youth Championships. It's time to make Chinese soccer proud. We should also give South Korea a taste of defeat so that they will not dare to belittle Chinese soccer anymore.
