As we enter the year 2023, the competitive stage of Chinese soccer is buzzing with excitement, as several national teams will gather in the Asian arena. The national youth team will compete in the U20 Asian Cup, the national junior team will appear in the U17 Asian Cup, and the national Olympic team will devote themselves to the U23 Asian Cup qualifiers and the Asian Olympic qualifiers. The national soccer team for the Asian Games is ready to go, while the national men's soccer team is aiming for the Asian qualifiers for the World Cup. National Youth, National Junior and National Olympic team's trip to Asia has come to an end, Yang Chen coached the National Junior group unfortunately out of the group, while the National Olympic team is caught in a passive, only one win and one draw in six matches, whether it can go into the main round, the suspense to be solved.
The Antonio-coached National Youth Football Team put in an eye-catching performance, showing resilience in both offense and defense, and managed to beat tough opponents such as Japan, South Korea, and Saudi Arabia, setting a rare offensive record in Chinese soccer history. Despite falling to South Korea in the semifinals and ending up in the last eight, their performance far exceeded expectations. It is worth noting that Cheng Yaodong's introduction of the National Youth's starting lineup to the Olympics did not work out well, reflecting the limitations of local coaches.
On September 12, the national soccer team Asian Games team started to warm up for the upcoming Asian Games. The new coach Djurdjevic restructured the team to make the offense and defense more balanced and the team's morale high. The two warm-up matches were won by 1-0 and 3-1 scores against South Korea and Chinese Taipei respectively, especially the South Korean team's victory was full of gold, with the team led by star player Jung Yooyoung fielding the starting lineup. Sun Chin Han's goal was the icing on the cake.
In the last two days, the Asian Games national soccer team has shown good consistency against weaker teams, with Jiang Shenglong, Liu Ruofan and Gao Tianyi each scoring a goal. Coach Djurdjevic's 24-man roster includes powerhouse players such as Liu Yang, Tan Long, Gao Tianyi and Peng Peng. The national team is in good shape to play as hosts in the three group matches of the Asian Games, and from Sept. 19 to 30, they will face India, Myanmar and Bangladesh in a bid to advance to the knockout stage.
Due to the conflict between the Asian Games and the International Game Week, the Chinese Super League and the Football Association Cup have been affected. According to "Soccer News", Dalian and Shanghai Shenhua teams are under pressure, and Dalian's relegation situation is worrying. He Yupeng, Wang Zhenao and Huang Jiahui and other national Olympic players called up, so Dalian people need to adjust the lineup. In order to stay in the relegation, the team will fight for the early return of players from the Football Association (FA). Shanghai Shenhua, on the other hand, is facing double pressure as their request for an extension of the AFC Cup match has been rejected, making team restructuring and performance stabilization a difficult task.
