At nightfall on July 15, China's men's national soccer team started the second outdoor training session of the new round of training at the Tiantai Stadium in Qingdao. That night, returning stars Tan Long, Jiang Guangtai, Zhu Chenjie, and Dai Weijun, who were featured in the Qatar World Qualifier, joined the team for this collective practice. In stark contrast to the first practice on the 14th, the national team's focus this time fell on shooting skills and field-wide group attack and defense drills. Head coach Jankovic emphasized the "need to go forward", which is the core of the team's tactics in the East Asian Cup.
Originally, the national team planned to start the second outdoor training session at 4:30 pm. However, considering that the four returning international players had just joined the team, the whole team took family photos according to tradition, and the first round of the East Asian Cup was held in the evening, the coaching team finally postponed the training time to 6:00 pm.
The training on the 15th was as compact and efficient as the first training day. However, with the addition of four players, Tan Long, Jiang Guangtai, Zhu Chenjie and Dai Weijun, the team's training content was closer to actual game scenarios.
The 55-minute training session was divided into three sessions, the first of which was dedicated to shooting skills. Yankovic set strict standards for the players' performance, not only requiring them to shoot accurately, but also stipulating that they must complete several passes with their teammates before shooting.
The next two sessions are group confrontation training, the second session of the special arrangement of the youngest Xuchen as a free man, to help the two sides to carry out the pass with the ball. It is reported that, in addition to Niu Ziyi, a player from Henan Songshan Longmen Football Club who was absent due to ill health, the rest of the 24 players (including three goalkeepers, and the field is equipped with three goals) participated in the group confrontation in these two sessions. It can be seen that in the limited time, Jankovic is doing his best to find the best combination of lineups for the East Asian Cup and speed up team bonding.
With the red and yellow groups of players constantly interchanging during the confrontation, it was difficult for on-site media reporters to accurately judge the national team's starting lineup based on only about 40 minutes of group confrontation. But judging from Yankovic's on-site command, the team will not adopt a conservative defense strategy during the East Asian Cup, but rather seek an aggressive style of play. Yankovic often interrupted the confrontation to make new requirements to the players, which repeatedly emphasized that "keep attacking and avoid passing back." In particular, he emphasized the importance of wingbacks such as Liang Shaowen, Wu Shaocong, and Wen Jiabao to be resolute on the wings.
It is worth mentioning that in the past two days of training, Yankovic has been emphasizing the fast ball and the running of players without the ball, hoping that the players can understand the tactical goal of "the whole team's offensive and defensive rhythms are unified, taking into account the accuracy and speed of the ball". In his opinion, this is the key to improve the efficiency of offense and defense.
