The final chapter of the U17 Asian Cup Qualifiers came to a close on October 12th amidst the stormy weather. China's U17 National Junior Team was defeated by Australia in the final round with a score of 1-3, but despite this, they still managed to advance to the second place in the group with an excellent result. Oriental Sports Daily used this as a title to praise this team as a ray of light for the national soccer team in the cold winter.
After the loss in the qualifiers, a source close to Yang revealed, "Yang has always been known for his sense of responsibility, and at that moment he must have been blaming himself.If the U17 National Junior Team fails to qualify, the impact on these young players will be devastating. Look at all the players who have played in the World Youth Championships but lost their chance to play for the national team because they failed to qualify for the Asian Youth Championships, and how many of them ended up as mainstays of the national team." Therefore, for China's men's soccer team, which has just emerged from the loss of the Top 12 tournament, the promotion of the U17 national junior team to the main round has undoubtedly become a ray of hope in the cold winter of the national soccer team.
In the team, 16-year-old Wang Yudong stood out with his outstanding performance, scoring a total of 8 goals and tying with Australia's Ilan Kunda as the top scorer in this year's qualifiers. The article predicts that Wang Yudong will soon enter the professional league, and if he can do well in next year's U17 Asian Cup, the Chinese Super League seems to be within his reach. Yang Chen, a highly successful player in the Bundesliga, would like to see our young players baptized in higher levels of training and competition abroad. He has said, "I always encourage them to be brave and go out when they have the chance." He believes that after the age of 16, players need to receive tactical guidance and more physical confrontation training, and going to Europe or Japan to exercise is a good choice. We need to develop more players with characteristics and talents to really improve the overall soccer level.
Although the ten-year "Golden Dollar League" of the Chinese Super League has failed to allow our team to enter the World Cup, in the view of many people, with the increased investment of the Chinese Super League clubs, the pool of soccer talent after the 2001 and 2002 age groups has exceeded the previous. However, in Yang Chen's opinion, this may only be a superficial boom. He pointed out, "At the beginning, although two teams were formed, there was a big difference in the players' abilities, and there were not as many players to choose from as people thought." In particular, the break in the backline was more serious. He mentioned that many children choose to play as strikers because the stars they admire are strikers, and there are naturally not many players willing to play in the backline.
For Yang Chen and his team, the biggest significance of this group advancement is that the overall structure of the team has been preserved and the players have been given more opportunities to participate in international matches as a result. The program formulated by our Football Association does not rule out the possibility of teams like theirs working out in overseas leagues. After all, there is nothing more important for young players of this age group than playing more matches.
