List Revealed
February 8, the Chinese Football Association announced the 2001 age group U21 national youth team this year the first training list, 50 players will start from February 10 in Shanghai Oriental Green Boat base to start training, preparation for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games. The training scale is large, the Department of special circumstances to take targeted measures.
New faces emerge as professional league helps growth
As a result of the epidemic, the 2001 age group teams have been participating in the China B League for two consecutive years since 2020, and league training has been beneficial to the growth of young players. Due to reasons such as the Chinese Super League teams sending youths to participate in the AFC Champions League and the National Games, players are constantly being pulled out of the team during the league, and the team's personnel changes frequently. But for young players, as long as there are games to participate in is good. Therefore, whether it is the AFC Champions League, Chinese Super League, Chinese First Division or Chinese Second Division, the National Youth Football Team has adopted the strategy of release, because its own team is not to pursue the results of the Chinese Second Division, but rather hope to give more opportunities for young players to play, and to improve the level of the level of the real battle.During the Chinese Second Division of the 2021 League, there are a total of 45 players of the National Youth Football Team on the field.
On the other hand, clubs in both the Chinese Super League and the Chinese League One, affected by the financial situation of their parent companies and the impact of the epidemic, have also activated a number of 2001-age players in order to better implement the U23 policy in the face of personnel shortages. As a result, a number of 01-age group players, who were previously less emphasized, have appeared on the professional field, which in turn has provided a wider selection surface for the National Youth Football Team.
As a result, the most notable feature of the latest edition of the roster is that many players who have never been selected for the 01 age group U19 National Youth Football League or U20 National Youth Football League have gone straight into this U21 National Youth Football League team. Head coach Sung Yeo-dong has watched various matches in the two-and-a-half years since he took over this age group in July 2019, and has also surveyed almost all the players available for selection. But as domestic matches for this age group remain scarce, there will still be leftovers. About 1/5 of the players in this 50-man training squad were called up for the first time because of their outstanding performances at all levels of the league the previous year.
For example, Shi Yan, a young forward on loan to Tianjin Jinmen Tigers from Shandong Taishan, might have had fewer chances to play if he had stayed with Taishan, but with Jinmen Tigers short of players, he made a total of 13 appearances in the league last season and scored two goals. As a player of the 2002 age group national junior team, due to the failure to qualify for the Asian Junior Championships, Shi Yan and also selected for the U21 National Youth Football League goalkeeper Guo Tong, defender Su Bi and Liang Shao Wen, together with other, did not have the opportunity to debut in the Asian tournament. But the previous year's Chinese Super League provided Shi Yan with an opportunity.
Cangzhou Lions' wing-back Zhang Xiangshuo was a highly touted member of the team when Shen Xiangfu, Qu Bo and Frenchman Gonfalon were head coaches of the age group. But since 2019, it has barely been on the radar, and it wasn't until 10 appearances and a total of 479 minutes in the previous year's Chinese Super League that it came back to the attention of the U21 National Youth coaching staff.
And like midfielder Wang Haoran, Song Xintao, striker Chen Xiangyu, Zhao Jianbo and other young people who have never had the experience of the national team, more completely due to the appearance in the Chinese Super League and the first time to become a player of the national team. From Xinjiang Tianshan Snow Leopard team defender Ibraimu Kurban, but also due to the outstanding performance in the Central League and to be selected, he played 16 times in the previous year accumulated 860 minutes, in all the 01 age group players in the accumulated playing time ranked eighth, in front of him, including this time to return to the goalkeeper Huang Zihao, striker Ai Fei Erding, Yi Xianlong, Tian Yuda and so on.
From this point of view, although the Chinese Super League, China A really no money, but the teams face the reality to give more opportunities to young players, perhaps it is the so-called "woe is the blessing, the blessing is the ambush".
Goalkeeper Wang Xiaofeng is in a relatively unique situation. He was also selected for the national team, but joined the Japanese J3 League team Nagano Passero in March 2020, but unfortunately did not get a chance to play. On January 11 this year, his contract with the team expired before returning to the country, and this time, he was in the team to be investigated.
Tao Qianglong leads 14 returning
In the list of 50 people, following the national youth team to play the previous year, a total of 26 players retained, these players should be said to have passed the test, can enter the 2024 Olympic standing army reserves. That is to say, the national youth team even if the later encounter clubs do not release or still reuse the situation, these 26 people can also form a team to play, to deal with a variety of games.
In addition to the new faces, five of the six players who were banned for disciplinary reasons in May 2020 returned after a year and a half, and four of them performed quite well in the previous year's Chinese Super League, with the likes of Tao Qianglong and Liu Zhuyun both scoring twice, and Han Dong and He Longhai making appearances, while only Shanghai Seaport's Peng has yet to make an appearance in the Chinese Super League but played with the Seaport at the end of 2020 in the The five were once part of this team. These five used to be the absolute mainstay of this team, but after a year and a half they will have to face competition from their teammates as the players grow up.
There are also nine other players who have returned to the team after a gap of more than a year to undergo a deeper investigation by the coaching staff. For example, Abrahan Halik, Yang Zihao, Chen Hoyu, Zhang Yu and Huang Zihao were originally under investigation for the National Youth Team's recruitment to the Chinese B Grade, but the National Youth Team did not call them up the previous year because their clubs made it clear that they would be the players the clubs would focus on using.
For example, Chen Yuhao on behalf of Wuhan in the previous year's Chinese Super League, a total of 882 minutes of play, is the 01 age group of players in the largest number of minutes of field time in the middle; playing in the Shanghai seaport of the Harbor is in the previous year in 22 rounds of the league a total of 17 appearances, is the most appearances of the 01 age group of players; Yang Zihao is the previous year the first to get the Chinese Super League goals of the 01 age group of players, if it is not because of the severe Yang Zihao was the first 01-age player to score a goal in the previous year's Chinese Super League, and if not for a serious injury, I'm afraid he wouldn't have made only 4 appearances for a total of 238 minutes; and goalkeeper Huang Zihao started every game in the Chinese Super League, with a total of 3,052 minutes of playing time. Through a year of training in the Chinese Super League, the technical and tactical level of these players and the improvement of their individual ability is obviously of greater concern to the coaching staff. And this is also the intention of bringing them back to the draft.
There are two other players who were favored by the coaching staff during the previous year's National Games, namely Wang Haisheng of Seaport and Chen Qian of Shenhua. Due to the registration rules of the China B League, the team was unable to call them into the team and play in the league for the time being. The two represented Zhejiang and Shanghai to participate in the National Games, which helped Zhejiang team to get the gold medal Wang Haisheng, was elected to the 02 age group national junior team, and participated in the 2017 Asian Junior Championship qualifiers.
It should be noted that the training list of the Beijing Guoan team Liang Shaowen, Ruan Qilong, Duan Dezhi, Hu Jiaqi and so on all fell out. It is reported that the national youth team in seeking Guoan club's opinion during the new head coach Xie Feng has made it clear that the new season is ready to fully use these young players, so the pre-season preparations need to focus on investigating the training. In this case, the national youth team coaching staff due to their own understanding of these players, and has been the team's main force, so this time they have not been drafted into the team. And if they can play in the national team on the main or main substitutes, can get playing time in the Super League, both for the players themselves or 01 age group team as a whole, are very beneficial.
