Beiqing: As soon as Shao Jia arrived in Chengdu to inspect potential national football players, the national football team’s winter training schedule is difficult to determine
6686 Sports News on November 12 According to a report by Beiqing Sports reporter Xiao Nan, the new national football coach Shao Jiayi appeared at the Panda Cup to inspect potential national players.
The new Panda Cup International Football Championship will kick off in Chengdu on November 12. The 2003 Chinese U22 team will face the Vietnamese U22 team in the first round of the night. It is understood that Shao Jiayi, who has just taken over as the new head coach of the Chinese men's football team, will appear at the Panda Cup to inspect players for the upcoming reorganization of the national men's football team, thus officially kicking off his coaching work in the national football team.
Exactly a week ago, the Chinese Football Association officially announced through official channels that Shao Jiayi, the 45-year-old former international player and coach of the Chinese Super League Qingdao West Coast Club, will be the new coach of the Chinese men's football team. Although the announcement did not clarify the specific details of the preparations for the new cycle of the national football team, including the schedule of the new training camp and the selection of the national football team, the reorganization of the national football team is of great importance. Shao Jiayi and his coaching team members still have no time to delay and need to implement various preparations before forming the team as soon as possible.
Among various tasks, the selection of new national football players is undoubtedly the focus. Because of this, Shao Jiayi's first stop for inspection after taking up his new job was in Chengdu. This is because the 2003 Chinese U22 team (the number will be automatically adjusted to the U23 national football team next year), which is preparing for the U23 Asian Cup finals early next year, will participate in the Panda Cup Invitational Tournament in Chengdu from November 12th to 18th. The opponents are Vietnam, Uzbekistan, and South Korea, three strong teams of the same age. This tournament is not only the most important training for the U22 national football team before they go to the U23 Asian Cup, but it has also become an important reference for the new national football coaching staff to inspect players because many young national football players have been selected. Of course, similar inspections are also the working practice of previous national football coaching teams.
Compared with several foreign predecessors, Shao Jiayi may be able to select national football players more easily and quickly. On the one hand, before he took over the West Coast team halfway through last season, he served as an assistant coach for the national football team for a long time, and is familiar with the team's management and teaching model, as well as the technical and psychological personality characteristics of new and old players; on the other hand, as early as March 2022, When the Chinese National Youth Team (the predecessor of the U22 National Football Team) officially raised its flag in 2003, Shao Jiayi served as the team leader. Two months later, he also served as the team's assistant coach. During the same period, he also served as the national football team leader. During this period, he not only established a cooperative relationship and friendship with the current U22 national football coach Antonio, but he was also very familiar with the flow of national players. It can be said that, apart from Antonio, Shao Jiayi is the professional who is most familiar with this U22 national football team.
Although it is not yet known which players will be recruited by the new national football team, judging from the deteriorating record of the national football team over the past few years and the rise of a group of young elite players represented by Wang Yudong, the new national football team will most likely increase the "youngerization" process. In other words, the new national football team will most likely rely on young players, and the proportion of players over 30 years old will not be large, or may even be handful. Under this circumstance, the national football coaching staff is likely to pay more attention to the U22 national football team (which will also shoulder the important task of competing for the Nagoya Asian Games men's football match next year), and even the new National Olympic team for the 2005 age group and the new National Youth Team for the 2007 age group that will raise the flag in the future.
When will the new national football team be reorganized? This is actually an issue that the national football coaching staff, players and their clubs are very concerned about. Many former international players have inquired about the situation through various channels because they need to arrange their vacation plans as soon as possible after the professional league season ends. At present, the Chinese Football Association and the Chinese Football Confederation have designed no less than two sets of drafts of the 2026 Chinese Football Association competition calendar. In terms of arranging the professional league schedule, a total of 4 training and international friendly match cycles have been reserved according to the FIFA calendar from March 23 to 31, June 1 to 9, September 21 to October 6, and November 9 to 17 next year. The 7th and 8th rounds of the first phase of the AFC Champions League will be held on February 10th/11th and 17th/18th next year (which falls during the Spring Festival holiday). According to the draft, the new Super Cup is scheduled to be held on February 28 next year, and the new Chinese Super League season is proposed to kick off on March 6 next year.
Judging from the calendar arrangement, if the Chinese men’s football team arranges winter training, the specific time can only be arranged after December 10 (the sixth round of the East Asia Region of the AFC Champions League Elite League) and before February 10 next year. During this period, the U23 Asian Cup will be held from January 7 to 25 next year. Each club will also kick off preparations for the new season at the end of this year and early next year. Therefore, how to arrange the winter training schedule and whether to recruit U22 players for the first training session of the new national football team requires the national football team to use their brains and negotiate with the clubs.
