The Korea Professional Football League (KPFL) announced on the 23rd that the schedule for the 22nd to 25th rounds of the K-League will be adjusted in order to safeguard the lineup call-ups for the Korean national team for the East Asian Cup.
The upcoming East Asian Cup, to be held in Japan from July 19-27, has undergone a schedule change that has allowed South Korea's head coach Paulo Bento to put together an adult national team made up of the K-League's elite. Given the absence of overseas players Son and Hwang Hee-chan, the South Korean squad will be made up primarily of Korean players from the K-League and other Asian leagues. For example, Son Jun-ho, who plays for Shandong Taishan in the Chinese Super League, and Kang Xiang-woo of Beijing Guoan, although they have not yet confirmed their selection, the tournament may be an important examination for Paulo Bento to finalize his final list for the International Cup.
According to the schedule of the East Asian Cup, South Korea's first opponent is China's U23 national football team. Although the Chinese team does not have a specific performance target, given the sluggish performance of the national men's football team in recent years, the team is tasked with the important responsibility of fighting for honor for the Chinese men's football team in the East Asian Cup. The players are well aware of the importance of playing well in the East Asian Cup.
According to the news, China's U23 national football team head coach Jankovic has returned to Beijing last week. Previously, he had observed the players' performance for a long time in the Haikou tournament. He will combine the observation results to determine the team's travel list as soon as possible. The original plan was to recruit three overage players from the national soccer team, Wu Xi, Zhang Linpeng and Zhang Yuning, to join the U23 national soccer team to help the East Asian Cup tournament. However, with the postponement of the Hangzhou Asian Games, the East Asian Cup has become an important international warm-up tournament for this year. Therefore, whether to call up overage players or not needs further discussion between manager Jankovic and the FA side.
In addition, the East Asian Cup, as a FIFA-certified A-level tournament, if the U23 national football team does not perform well in this tournament, the Chinese team's international ranking points will be at risk of falling. After all, in the FIFA rankings released yesterday, the Chinese team has fallen out of the top 10 in Asia, the international ranking of 78th, the lowest ranking in nearly 4 years. Facing the local elite players such as South Korea and Japan, the U23 national soccer team, which plays small against big, will face great pressure.
