In preparation for this season's U17 Asian Cup, China's U17 soccer team kicked off a 17-day training session on January 3 in Yuxi, Yunnan Province. Talking about the core objectives of the training, coach Yang Chen revealed that in addition to strengthening physical reserves and completing basic training, he also expects to take this opportunity to discover new talents and improve the team's overall defensive capabilities.
However, health issues continue to plague the team, with three players still unable to arrive at the training base. Meanwhile, nearly half of the 37 players are just getting over their injuries. In the face of this situation, the team's training is divided into two groups, with the players with shorter recovery periods doing easy jogging and stretching, while the other group is gradually put into physical fitness and basic skills and tactics training.
The training, the coaching team's primary task is to tap potential rookies, enhance the team's defensive thickness. Yang Chen said, after the Asian Cup qualifiers, the coaching team conducted a deep reflection, the primary task is to inject "fresh blood" to strengthen the defensive strength. To this end, Yang Chen and his assistants in the first time after returning to Zhuhai and Beihai, which is China's first youth soccer league. 2023, the U17 national soccer team for the first time assembled a list of 40 people, not only to participate in the Asian Cup qualifiers Wang Yudong, Ji Wen, Huang Kaijun, Kang Hua and other veterans, there are more 17 fresh faces. They are the coaching staff through the China Youth Championship carefully selected "fresh blood".
"Only players with outstanding strength will get the chance to show themselves." Yang Chen emphasized that the focus of scouting newcomers is concentrated on the midfield and backfield, "Defense has always been our shortcoming, especially in the final stage of the Asian Cup, where we face strong opponents, so we have to put defense on the top of our list. We hope to pick out good defensive players among them, especially those well-rounded players who can play multiple positions."
