It is worrying that our U19
national soccer team
There is a serious shortage of opportunities for real-world training. Since participating in the Shaanxi Weinan Huashan Cup Four-Nation Invitational Tournament in April 2019, until July 2023 when the team traveled to Europe, the team has not participated in international tournaments for more than three long years. During this period, apart from a few players representing Shandong Taishan or Guangzhou in the group stage of the AFC Champions League, the majority of players lack experience in international tournaments, which has undoubtedly become an obvious shortcoming for the team to compete.
At the same time, with our U19
national soccer team
The Saudi U19 team in the same group, however, won the Arab Cup U20 Youth Championship in 2021 and 2022 consecutively and participated in the West Asia U20 Youth Championship.In 2021, the Saudi U19 team also traveled to Croatia and Slovenia for training and participated in the Toulon Cup in May of that year. As the current qualifier our U19
national soccer team
The first opponent of the tournament, Myanmar U19s have participated in the Southeast Asian U19 Youth Championship, the Youth Newspaper Cup four-nation tournament and the second tier of their own country's league before traveling to Saudi Arabia in 2023, making the opposition not to be underestimated.
Despite the difficulties in the preparation process, our U19
national soccer team
Shoulder the heavy responsibility, "line" is the only goal of the whole team to pursue. In fact, in 2000, 2001, 2002 age group national youth team has been in the U19 Asian Youth Championship, U16 Asian Junior Championship qualifiers after the halting, "after 00" will become the national football "down generation"? This undoubtedly touches the hearts of the majority of fans and people concerned about the national football. China's Football Association appointed Spanish coach Antonio as the 2003 age group U19 men's football coach, former international footballer Shao Jiayi as a leader, and go all out to assist the team to organize overseas training, it is expected that this team can break the embarrassing record of the national youth army, to achieve a breakthrough.
Despite Saudi Arabia being the recognized favorites to finish in Group A, our U19
national soccer team
And do not intend to give up with this team "competition". Beating the Saudis and trying to finish at the top of the group is still the primary goal of this trip. Of course, even if we can't suppress the Saudis, we still need to fight for as many points as possible against other opponents in the same group to ensure that we can at least advance to the second place in the group. From this perspective, our U19
national soccer team
Not only do you need to beat your remaining opponents, but you also need to maximize your goal difference from the first round.
It is understood that on September 5, local time, our U19
national soccer team
A warm-up match with the Qatar U19 team, which was preparing in Saudi Arabia, resulted in a 0-2 loss for the team. Despite this, our U19
national soccer team
Still, through a series of warm-up matches to understand the recent situation of the Asian soccer world, the players in the physical and psychological level is also ready for the upcoming competition. The coaching team has also recently taken a few lessons in technical analysis for the players in conjunction with the video material of their opponents in the same group. Necessary pre-match psychological counseling has also been carried out.
At the pre-match press conference held on September 9, local time, Antonio began by saying, "The game is coming up and that will keep our team motivated. We know the game won't be easy and we hope the boys end up being proud of their performance." Talking about the pre-match preparations, Antonio said, "We have been in Saudi Arabia for a few days now, and we have played some warm-up matches before as planned, and have prepared well for the upcoming matches."
Regarding the out-of-conference competition, Antonio chose to avoid it for the time being. He said, "Saudi Arabia is a strong team, but we have to focus on our first round match against Myanmar." The China-Myanmar match will kick off at 9:30 p.m. local time on Sept. 10, or 2:30 a.m. Beijing time on the 11th.
