Under the glittering night sky of Qatar, the drums of war for the 2024 U23 Asian Cup were officially beaten on the night of April 15th. The hosts, Qatar, met the challenge of Indonesia's Olympic team at their doorstep, while our team kicked off their Asian tour on the night of the 16th, facing the group's top rivals, Japan, in their first match. 16 teams were skillfully divided into four groups, with the top three teams earning tickets to the Paris Olympics, while the fourth place team had to compete with the African teams through the play-offs to fight for the Olympic tickets. In the face of the seemingly cruel "group of death", our team how to stimulate the vitality, break through, has become the most urgent realistic goal.
In Doha and Dubai, Qatar, our Olympic team had an intense warm-up with a good record: 2-0 win over Saudi Arabia, 2-0 win over Qatar, 2-1 close win over Malaysia, 1-0 narrow win over Jordan, but 0-2 defeat against Uzbekistan in the last warm-up match. After the 11th warm-up match, the team immediately returned to their final preparations. Yang Xu, vice president of the Chinese Football Association, also arrived in Doha to help the team prepare for their trip to the Paris Olympics. The Olympic team stayed in the same hotel as Uzbekistan and trained for three consecutive days at the Alsal training base. Compared with the Asian Cup, the training conditions for the U23 Asian Cup seem to have dropped, with the organizing committee providing only five training bases and 10 training venues for the 16 teams. For this reason, teams had to book in advance and grab every bit of training time. In addition, there are only four stadiums for this year's U23 Asian Cup. The first match between our Olympic team and Japan will be played at the Jassim Hamad Stadium, a stadium that has a long history but has been remodeled several times and is in quite good condition. The ceilings can not only be closed but also air-conditioning facilities can be installed to provide the players with a comfortable playing environment. This stadium will also be the home of the Qatar Olympics, where the first match of the U23 Asian Cup was also held. It is worth mentioning that our previous warm-up match with Qatar was also played here and the players are no strangers to the venue. The team will move to the Abdullah bin Khalifa Stadium for the next two matches. According to the weather forecast, the Chinese team may encounter a rainy game, but the organizing committee has promised to provide air-conditioning for the teams to ensure the comfort of the players.
The first match of the China-Japan Olympics will be officiated by female referee Kathy Reibel from Australia. She refereed the match between the Chinese women's soccer team and England in last year's Women's World Cup. This time, she will partner with two referees from Australia and Kyrgyzstan. Tsuyoshi Oyen, the head coach of Japan's national Olympic team, has been in charge of the Kashima Antlers and has led the team to play against teams from the Chinese Super League on several occasions. Since 2022, Oyen has been in charge of Japan's National Youth Football Team and National Olympic Team, and he is no stranger to Chinese fans. Talking about the opponent of the first match, the Chinese Olympic team, Oyen just said that the physical quality of the Chinese players and the intensity of the game impressed him, he will try to adjust the players' state, and be well prepared for the game.
