By Chen Wei, Special Correspondent: On October 4, the final of the Shanghai Stars of Tomorrow Champions Cup was held at Shanghai SAIC Pudong Football Stadium. In this wonderful duel, Shanghai U15 blue team with a score of 3-0, by virtue of Xu Huashu's penalty kicks and Prince Heng's second goal, to overcome the Zhejiang Energy Greentown U15 team, successfully won the championship of the tournament.
The Shanghai U15 Blue Team is composed of the core members of the Shanghai Shenhua U15 unit, and the team's head coach is Tao Jin. For this name, I believe that many fans remember, Tao Jin was a member of the Shenhua team, retired in 2019 and then transitioned to become a coach, and opened a coaching career in the Shenhua team.
About winning the championship, Tao Jin said the most crucial thing is the excellent play of the players. After the game, Tao Jin led the U15 unit back to Kangqiao base, where they will continue to work hard to realize the dream in their hearts.
FOOTBALL: What's next for the team you lead after this tournament?
TAOJIN: We have returned to the Kangqiao base. Previously we trained at Jiangzhen Middle School, but some of the kids continue to play soccer and some have already gone to high school. If we continue to train at Jiangzhen Middle School, the school's immunization policy may be stricter and training will be inconvenient. So, after discussing with the club leaders, we decided to enter Kangqiao Base one year earlier so that we would have more freedom in training. In Kangqiao Base, we joked that we were back in the "city", where the training conditions and accommodation are better than in Jiangzhen Middle School, and most importantly, the freedom of training. In Jiangzhen Middle School, the kids still have to go to class, and after the third period in the afternoon, it may be 4:00 p.m. in the afternoon when we start training, which is better in the summer, but in the winter, when it gets dark earlier, the training time is not guaranteed.
FOOTBALL: We talked earlier when you were an assistant coach with the 03's and then left your base in Cambridge to go to Rivertown High School as the 07's head coach. You said that since you are taking this team, you have to keep taking it and won't let go. Now that you're back at Kangqiao Base with the championship, have you proved yourself?
I feel very happy, like returning from three years of school. I think I've learned a lot in these three years, and the most important thing is that since you've chosen this job, you have to do it well. The club has invested a lot in youth training over the years, and has been exploring and searching for a development model that suits Shenhua and Chinese soccer. After a group of our old players retired, the director of youth training, Yan Xiang, approached us, and he hoped that we could go down to the bottom to lead the team and train ourselves at the bottom. The fact that he found us shows that our club still has the idea to do youth training, and he wants us to go because we have the experience of being professional players, and maybe we know a little bit more about soccer, and through training, we can then grow into a better coach.
At this stage, the head coach of Shenhua's U21 team is Yu Tao; the head coach of the U19 team is Xu Yibin, an old coach who is very responsible; the head coach of the U17 team is Ye Zhanggen; the head coach of the U15 team is me; and the head coach of the U14 team is Zheng Kewei. These coaches have Shenhua elements in them to a greater or lesser extent. At Jiangzhen High School, our 08, 09 and 10 age group teams have been formed, and the 11-year team is also in the process of formation.
FOOTBALL: Talk about how it feels to have won this tournament?
TAOJIN: This championship is now in the past tense, and I told the team that we have to start all over again and move on up. Of course I'm happy to win the championship, but I think this championship still deserves recognition and doesn't mean too much. It's vital for the kids to be able to play at a high level. I take this age group, I've been about Luneng before but never got an appointment, and in Zhejiang we haven't played for a year. Since we have this opportunity now, I say to the kids, you have to take the chance to find out your problems in official matches and then make up for it in training.
I have seen the external evaluation of us, there are some opinions that we did not play well in the Youth Super League, why did we perform so well this time? I haven't explained it before, because we stayed at home for three months due to the epidemic and only trained for one month before joining the Youth Super League, the whole preparation period was very insufficient, so we didn't play well in the Youth Super League. Although we made it to the round of 16, I think we could have gotten a better result if we had done more.
FOOTBALL: How do you rate the opponents in this tournament?
I would like to say a few words about the Chinese U15 Dragons and Chinese U15 Tigers in this tournament. I see a lot of criticism from the outside world, but I don't think there are many people who really understand the situation. In terms of cards, China U15 Tigers is the strongest team, this team has many captains of youth super teams, the ability is relatively strong, and they first pick people to form a team, but this selection is only four days, and after the final selection of the players out of the final I think only a day or two of practice, so let these players are not very good at bonding together to play games, can they play a good result? The team was formed in a hurry, and the bonding was not very good, which is the key to the bad results.
In addition, they have been the CFA elite team, but Luneng released four people to the team for this tournament, one of us didn't, and Jiangsu Province didn't have anyone to come over due to playing the Provincial Games. So, they also have a lot of difficulties this time, but through this tournament, the data of these players are entered into the database, as a reference for the future selection of players. How did these players perform in the national team or not? In the end suitable for the national team or not? This all needs to be considered comprehensively. Because you have to realize that some players may be better in the salon, but to the national team, his performance is not necessarily OK. They were selected this time, and then play the game, this is a must, only to see how they perform in the official game, you will know he in the end suitable or not, you let him play, maybe it will not perform well, but you do not let him play, you will never know how his level.
I see that there are also more criticisms from the outside world on the coaches of our Dragons and Tigers, saying that they are usually lecturers and don't lead the team, so aren't they out to lead the team now? Do not lead the team not practice, perhaps the effect of the lecturer to teach out is not very good, and now also come out to lead the team, also come out to practice, I see there are netizens criticized, I would like to say is that the lecturer is not omnipotent, in such a short period of time to a group of players gathered together from all over the world is indeed very difficult to grind together well, but dare to play outside is a kind of progress, so also expect that we can support, the same way I'm also an elite coach! I am also a beneficiary of the elite coaching camp.
FOOTBALL: You should have had a summary about this competition, right? In your opinion, what are the reasons for this win?
Tao Jin: First, I take this unit for more than three years, I know the players very well, we have a better team bonding, for this age group I also know very well, before playing the game, we selected some people from the Lucky Star and Jiading, there is a time for bonding; second, I think there is also a component of luck. Our strength is not as good as Luneng, and Zhejiang is almost the same, this kind of game depends on the players' ability to adjust to the field and read the game, our players perform better, maybe in the game has an advantage, can win the game; third, I think our players are very hard, they especially like to study the game, like to study, no matter training and games are very hard. This is the most important, the most important reason to win the game.
FOOTBALL: There have been a lot of difficulties in the formation and development of this unit, haven't there?
When we formed this team, there were many difficulties. Many good players were selected by Evergrande, Fuli and Luneng, we were organized as a team of 16 people, and at that time, only one person out of 16 could complete the task of turning the ball over for ten seconds, and the basic skills were not very good. We then tried to find ways to bring in players, talk to parents, and put in a lot of effort. Subsequently, after our competition results gradually got better and our reputation became bigger, the situation improved and the parents were happy to trust us. Honestly, seeing their results improve and seeing their efforts recognized is the happiest thing you can do.
Our team doesn't have any important tasks ahead, and one of the problems we are facing now is that our players have too few chances to participate in official matches and high level matches. You have to understand that matches are a demonstration of the results of training, and high-level matches will expose problems, which can be dealt with in training, and then played in high-level matches, where the problems can be found and dealt with again until they become fewer and fewer. But the competition opportunities are too few. I hope that matches like the Stars of Tomorrow Championship can be held more often.
At the bottom of the youth training, I now also see a lot of work, for example, I have led the Pudong four or five grade elite team, at that time, our team has a lot of very good children, but with the deepening of the school, they may gradually do not play football, encountered such a situation I really think it is too sorry, the loss of talent is too serious, but there is no way. Now the integration of sports and education is doing well, but I expect to do better.
Soccer: Shenhua first team manager Wu Jingui specifically mentioned in the post-match conference of the battle against Henan Songshan Longmen that your winning the championship is a kind of encouragement to them, what do you think?
First of all, I am very grateful to the club Wu and Zhou for their support of our youth training, without their support, our work progress may be very difficult, in the first team, I have also heard that the two leaders of our praise; Secondly, Wu Jingui is the head coach of our first team, but also our first salon director of youth training, to do the director of youth training when he has been exploring the correct development of the road in the youth training, which is a learning experience for us. This is a kind of learning, we need to summarize the good methods. I told the kids that since we are practicing at the Kangqiao base, they can often see the big brothers of the first team, and your goal now is to get into the first team. For them, practicing here is also a kind of motivation.
