Chief reporter Chen Yong reports When the Chinese U20 national team (hereinafter referred to as the "05 national youth") missed the opportunity again and again, they were punished in the last moments of the game, and the Saudi U20 team's stunner goal made the 05 national youth 0-1 eliminated, and the dream of Chinese football to return to the World Series continued to be postponed.

Although the dream has not been realized, for Chinese youth football, the progress is clearly visible: in 2023, the 03 national youth will return to the quarterfinals of the U20 Asian Cup (hereinafter referred to as the "Asian Youth Championship") after 8 years, and in 2024, the 08 national youth will enter the U17 Asian Cup (hereinafter referred to as the "Asian Youth Championship") main match, and the 05 national youth will reach the quarterfinals of the Asian Youth Championship again and perform well overall. Previously, the 01 national youth had missed the Asian Youth Championships, and the 00 national youth and 02 national youth had missed the Asian Youth Championships for two consecutive years.

At present, the youth national teams at all levels have come to the verge of a breakthrough, and when this will not be broken, we should actually be more patient and more persistent.

05 The moment when the national youth missed the semi-finals, almost all of them left the word "regret" in their hearts, and more people gave encouragement to the team and players, the reason is very simple, although the final result is to miss the semi-finals and miss the U20 World Cup, but the process and content of the four games are gratifying: finally able to control the situation of the game, finally have a clearer midfield combing and offensive and defensive conversion, and finally have a faster and concise pass, in addition to the spirit of tenacious struggle, the boys also showed more self-confidence.

Of course, there are many things that need to be summarized, such as Djurdjevic not only did not build a second lineup, but even the normal "11+5" lineup was not built, which is actually the reason why he was reluctant to change Saudi Arabia and the national youth substitution was out of control. These technical and tactical problems, the Football Association will naturally have a summary.

A comprehensive analysis of the development of youth football in China, if you carefully sort it out, the past 10 years have actually gone through three stages of development.

The first stage is from 2015 to 2019, which can be called the trough era: in 2015, the 00 national junior qualifiers lost and missed the Asian junior competition; In 2017, the 02 National Youth Qualifiers lost and missed the Asian Junior Championship; In 2019, the 01 National Youth Qualifiers lost and missed the Asian Youth Championships. This stage can be said to be the lowest point in the history of Chinese youth football.

The second stage is from 2019 to 2022, which can be called the return stage, and the national youth teams at all levels will fully return to the main competition: in 2019, 04 national youth teams will qualify for the Asian Junior Championship finals; In 2022, 06 national youth will qualify for the finals of the Asian Junior Championship. At this stage, although the national youth and national youth returned, their technical and tactical performance was average, such as the 03 national youth in the qualifiers, which was almost a bus-style defensive counterattack.

The third stage is from 2023 to 2024, which is what we mentioned earlier, the 03 national youth reached the quarterfinals in the Asian Youth Championship, and the 08 national youth beat the South Korean team in the qualifiers and advanced, including the 05 national youth has made great progress in technical and tactical performance. At this stage, in fact, the national youth teams at all levels have come to the verge of breakthrough.

The development of youth football has a lag, from 2015 to 2019, the trough era of the 00 to 02 age group, the reason for which should be traced back to earlier, such as the youth training desert era before 2013; The continuous breakthrough from 03 to 08 age groups, the rapid development of young people after the promulgation of the "Overall Plan for the Reform and Development of Chinese Football", and the crazy investment in youth training in the Jinyuan football era are two important reasons.

Of course, the good performance of the 05 national youth technical and tactical level is related to the two talented players Yi Mulan and Wang Yudong, in addition, Kuai Jiwen's performance is also very good, in comparison, the 08 national youth who will play in the Asian Junior Championship in April also has a talented player Abibula, but the midfield lacks a player like Yi Mulan, but fortunately, the team is more integral. In fact, as far as world football is concerned, unless it is an advanced football country, the vast majority of national teams or youth national teams are very dependent on talented players, and the core reason for the continuous emergence of talented players is that there is a larger youth football population base.

The national youth missed the World Youth Championships, which involved three core topics: first, how the Chinese Football Association summarized; Second, how does this team transition to the National Olympics? The key point is whether Djurdjevic will continue to coach; Of course, the more crucial thing is how the 05 generation of players develops.

In fact, the previous combing has explained a fact: the development of Chinese youth football is in full recovery, from the trough period to the recovery period, and now it has reached a breakthrough point. Therefore, although the 05 national youth finally failed to participate in the World Youth Championships, all parties should actually give full recognition and encouragement.

In the past few years, the national brand management system has been sorted out, and then in 2024, it will be basically sorted out and a perfect system will be formed, among which the "big national team system" has been improved at the national team level - the General Administration, the Football Association, and professional clubs will fully coordinate the construction of the national team; In 2024, the 07 age group elite training camp has been launched, and this year the 07 national youth team (U18 national team) will be officially formed, and the national youth team system has 08 national youth, 09 national youth selection team (in fact, officially formed), 10 national youth selection team, 11 age group elite training camp and training camps for younger age groups.

In the past, the formation of the national youth team and the national youth team was temporary, but now through the orderly connection of the training camp, elite training camp, selection team and official team, the management system of the youth national team has been relatively perfect. As a simple example, the 2024 Elite Camp for the 11 age group will have separate camps for players born on or after July 1 in the 2011 age group at the end of the year, in addition to the normal multi-batch training camps.

As for the preparation of the national youth and the national youth team, the main purpose is to continue to warm up with overseas high-level teams, the national youth team is to go to Japan, South Korea and Europe to train together, and the national youth team in addition to overseas training but also to participate in the international football invitational tournament held in China, such as the "Panda Cup".

Therefore, the Chinese Football Association does not need to deny itself because of a loss, but should adhere to the current relatively scientific and orderly management model, patiently cultivate various youth teams, and continue to make breakthroughs should be a matter of course.

Regarding the connection between the 05 National Youth and the 05 National Olympic Games, the focus is on whether Djurdjevic can continue to lead the team. As far as 2025 is concerned, this group of players will participate in the National Games qualifiers and the National Games finals, plus the league tasks, there is no need to formally form in the short term, and it will normally be formed at the end of 2025 or early 2026, and the normal game time of the U23 Asian Cup is early 2028. As for Djurdjevic, there are phased assessment goals in his contract, and it is unlikely that he will continue to serve as the coach of the 05 National Olympic Games after missing the World Youth Championships, and the Chinese Football Association has enough time to choose a new coach for the National Olympic team.

Missing the World Youth Championships, these 05-year-old players lost a chance to show themselves on the world stage, in this case, whether they can play systematically in the league will determine whether they can reach the Olympic Games in the future, and whether they can provide greater help to the national football team in the future.

At present, fans generally hope that the players of the 05 national youth team will play in the league, especially several players who have shown their talent, and hope that they can get experience in the Chinese Super League and improve their level in a more competitive environment.

Normally, this group of players can fully return to the league after the U20 Asian Cup, but the U20 group of the National Games will make it difficult for them to play in the league system. The preliminaries of the U20 group of the National Games will be held from May 23 to June 6, and the final stage will be held from November 1 to 11, considering the training of the National Games teams and the recovery and adjustment after the event, there are not many rounds left for them to participate in the league, about the 3rd round to the 9th round (the end of March to April), and the 15th to 26th round (the end of June to September), about 18 rounds of the league.

Comparatively, the frontcourt players and wing players, the use of each team may be easier, the training of midfield and backfield players needs to have a certain degree of pertinence, at present, the national youth team in the middle of the backfield players are concentrated in the Taishan team, Yi Mulan, Shi Songchen, Peng Xiao and Chen Zeshi's training needs a certain degree of pertinence and even take a little risk.

In fact, considering the age of the local central defenders of the Taishan team, it is completely possible to use Shi Songchen or Peng Xiao to partner with foreign central defenders in some games; As for Yi Mulan, his body is not yet in the best condition, and it is an effective way to start in the game where the Taishan team has strong control, or to substitute as a midfielder in some games to improve the midfield combing ability; As for Chen Zeshi, his position in the Taishan team is most likely to be in the frontcourt.

As for the national team's recruitment of national youth players, because the national team has 4 international competitions in March and June, it is not realistic to recruit more than 05 age group players.

Generally speaking, the development of youth football in China is based on campus football, with youth competitions at all levels as the core, and the construction of youth national teams as the improvement. The gradual recovery of youth football in China is closely related to the comprehensive recovery and development of China's youth competition system at all levels since 2022.

On December 31, 2024, the Chinese Football Association released the "2025 National Youth Football Competition Calendar", which is scheduled to start in the first half of 2024 and finally be completed at the end of the year, because it is too difficult to coordinate the event. Shenhua youth training director Pontes has a statistic for Liu Chengyu, he has participated in very intensive competitions in a very short period of time, and his body is overwhelmed, and the game has lost its meaning for him.

At present, the China Youth Championship has entered its fourth year, and the professional club competition system has also entered its third year after the recovery, plus the member association group competition, key city group competition, as well as the National Games, the Youth Association, and the launch of the Three Ball Youth Games (hereinafter referred to as the Three Ball Games), it is very necessary to comprehensively sort out the event system of Chinese youth football.

It is suggested that the National Games, the Youth Games, the Three Ball Games and the group competitions of member associations should be organically combined, among which the National Games and the Youth Games will no longer set up separate youth football competitions; The three major ball U18 group competitions (provincial and municipal teams) held every year are counted as the results of the National Games (the General Administration is already operating); The three major ball U15 groups (city teams) competitions held each year are counted as the results of the YMCA. The three major ball games have fixed qualifiers (February to March) and finals (November to December) in order to fully coordinate the calendar. The member association group only holds the U17 group (provincial and municipal group) and U14 group competitions, as the precursor to the U18 group and U15 group of the three major ball games. As for the provincial and municipal games, they are limited to the U15 group, so as to connect the U15 group of the three major ball games in an orderly manner.

Although there are only U18 groups (National Games) and U15 groups (Youth Association) in the three major ball games, in fact, no matter whether it is a provincial or municipal team or a city team, it must be a single-age group team.

On this basis, the China Youth Championship and the professional club U series events will be fully integrated, such as the U19 and U21 leagues of the China Youth Championship will be merged into the U20 League (and the U20 group of the China Youth League), and home and away matches will be implemented, so as to create China's top youth competition. The competition system of the Youth Championship and other group competitions of professional clubs has also been further optimized, and other competitions of the Ministry of Education have also been sorted out in an orderly manner. In this way, the entire Chinese youth football competition system will be extremely clear, and the relevant youth competition calendar can be released before June 30 of the previous year, and the events that each team needs to participate in and the corresponding arrangements will also be clear and orderly.

15 years old is the watershed of youth football, 15-year-old and before the direction of the direction, they are fully distributed in the city echelon, professional club echelon, social youth training institutions and schools (including sports schools), therefore, the city team corresponds to the three major ball games U15 group (student youth association) and provincial and municipal games, training institutions (including professional echelon, social youth training institutions and schools) corresponding to the youth competition and U15 league. After the age of 15, the direction of the players is basically determined, and the track is also regionally divided, so the provincial and municipal teams correspond to the U18 group (National Games) of the three major ball games, and the professional club echelon mainly attacks the U17 league and the U20 league, and at the same time participates in the U17 Youth Championship, and the high school team participates in the Youth Championship and the campus football high school league.