China's U23 national team, coached by Yankovic, will soon embark on a flight with the men's soccer team to the United Arab Emirates on March 17 to prepare for the "Dubai Cup" International Football Championships, which will kick off in late March. It is reported that there are 10 strong teams competing in this tournament, including Japan U23 team and Vietnam U23 team. The Chinese team will face the host UAE U23 team in the first round of the tournament, and then challenge the Vietnam U23 team in the match on March 26, which will undoubtedly be the focus of the China-Vietnam match.
It is reported that soccer exchanges worldwide have plummeted due to the epidemic and international travel restrictions. As major sporting events such as the World Cup and the Olympics continue as usual, there has been a surge in demand for high-quality warm-up matches for national soccer teams. Both the Thai Football Association and the Japan Football Association have applied to the UAE Football Association through official channels to participate in the tournament, while the Japan Football Association has confirmed that the 2001 age group National Youth Football Team will participate in the Hangzhou Asian Games, and the Dubai Cup provides an excellent platform for the team to prepare for the tournament. The Thai FA and the UAE FA maintain close cooperation in youth soccer exchanges, and in recent years the Thai FA has also attached great importance to the construction of youth and young teams, with the U23 team having just debuted at the Southeast Asian Soccer Championships in Cambodia.
The registration shows that apart from the Croatian U23 team and the Chinese U23 team, all the other eight teams are from the final stage of the U23 Asian Cup or the Hangzhou Asian Games soccer tournament to be held in Uzbekistan in May this year. The UAE Football Association (UAEFA), in inviting associations to send teams to the tournament, specifically emphasized that they must meet the U23 criteria for forming teams.
The format of this tournament is: 10 teams play two rounds and are ranked according to points. If the points are the same, the ranking will be determined by the goal difference and the number of goals scored; if the data remains the same, the number of red and yellow cards will be used as the basis; if the teams are still indistinguishable, the ranking will be determined by drawing lots. After the teams have been ranked, the final round of matches will be played on March 29, with the top two teams competing for the title, the 3rd and 4th for 3rd place, and so on until the final ranking is determined. 10 teams will have to play a total of 15 matches.
According to the plan, China's U23 team will face the UAE U23 team and Vietnam U23 team on March 23 and 26 respectively. In the 8th round of the Asian Zone 12 World Qualifying Tournament on February 1, China lost to Vietnam 1-3 on the road, which was the first time in the country's history that it lost to Vietnam in an international match. With China out of the Qatar World Cup final round two rounds ahead of schedule, the negative impact of the loss was further magnified, putting enormous pressure on the national soccer team.
However, the priority for this Chinese U23 national team is to go all out to prepare for the game and try to get a workout in quality matches. A team source said, "We are now only focusing on the game, other voices are out of the picture for now."
