After only three days of rest, the 2001 age group U21 National Youth Football Team, the new National Olympic Men's Football Team, will gather again in Shanghai on March 9 to start the second phase of this year's training. Faced with the uncertainty of the qualification of the new season of the Central League, the coaching team, in order to improve the efficiency of preparation, plans to arrange at least seven warm-up matches in this cycle, including Beijing Guoan, Tianjin Jinmen Tiger and other Chinese Super League powerhouses.
The 2001 age group U21 National Youth Football Team had completed the first phase of this year's training from February 10th to March 5th. It was during the break between the old and new seasons of the professional league, and with the epidemic and other factors, it was difficult for the team to find suitable opponents to warm up against. As a result, the coaching staff recruited a total of 50 players, both to further examine the level of elite players of the right age and to enhance the practical ability through internal teaching matches.
In fact, the question of whether or not the team can continue to participate in the professional league has been lingering in the minds of this national youth team. Although it is almost a certainty that the 2003 age group U19 National Youth Football Team will participate in the new season of the China B League, the competitive level and competitive interests of the China A League are obviously higher, so some clubs and related parties have put forward different opinions as to whether the U21 National Youth Football Team will participate in the China A League or not.
As a men's soccer team of the right age for the Paris Olympics, the 2001 age group U21 National Youth Football Team has an urgent need for high-quality matches. Against this background, the team quickly organized the second phase of training shortly after the first phase. The core strategy of this phase of preparation was to "replace training with matches".
It is worth mentioning that the number of players drafted for this training has been reduced from 50 to 30 in the last cycle. This is because, after the last cycle of training and a number of teaching matches, the coaching team conducted a comprehensive assessment of the technical level and physical condition of each player, and objectively judged the strengths and weaknesses of the players based on the data. Considering the fact that the current training will take professional club teams as warm-up opponents, the coaching team finally decided to streamline the lineup. A source from the team said, "The players who were not selected for this training cycle are also competitive and the coaching team has communicated with them. They are all young people with unlimited potential and may be called up to the team at any time in the future."
According to the plan, the U21 National Youth Football Team will play warm-up matches on the 12th, 14th, 17th, 19th, 22nd, 24th and 26th of this cycle in sequence. On the 12th, the team will warm up with the Tianjin Jinmen Tigers of the Chinese Super League, and will then play against a number of other professional club teams. The coaching staff plans to split the 30 players into two groups, with each group playing half a game in each warm-up match, to ensure that each player will be able to participate in three to four matches at the end of this training cycle.
