They are indeed, North Korea has been very consistent on youth level while China has been slowly declining over the years. The game is on CCTV-5 Starting line-up: 守门员：1-方镜淇； 后卫：13-傅欢、2-李昂、5-石柯、3-曹海清； 中场：17-谢鹏飞、15-廖力生、8-王睿、10-冯刚、14-常飞亚； 前锋：9-杨超声； 替补：4-杨挺、6-韩鹏飞、7-孙国文、11-陶源、12-徐嘉敏、16-廖均健、18-张卫、19-郭皓、20-庄佳杰；
The starting 11 in english: Fang Jingqi Fu Huan, Li Ang, Shi Ke, Cao Haiqing Xie Pengfei, Liao Lisheng, Wang Rui, Feng Gang, Chang Feiya Yang Chaosheng
HT North Korea 1 - 0 China China has trouble breaking down an organised North Korean defence. A lot of missplaced passes and hesitation from the Chinese players has led to a couple of very quick and dangerous counters for the Koreans. The Koreans play a long ball every time they get the ball and succeeds almost every time with their accurate passing. The Chinese defence has trouble with the pace of the Koreans, also because China pushes alot of men forward they're usually left with only the two CBs on the counters. It's been an action packed first half with North Korea looking extremely motivated and playing really well while China is struggling to cope with the pace of the game.
Fu Bo is the coach. The squad has talent but they haven't gotten into the game, they seem a bit nervous while the Koreans are extremely motivated and are playing high paced football wih every player sacrifing themselves
That early goal in the second half definately killed the game. China on a meltdown, can't even string three passes together and missplacing easy 2-3 meter passes. North Korea's attack is having a field day. China would need a leader like Wang Tong in defence to calm down the players, but i guess Shandong refused to release him. The only positive thing is that China can advance with a win against Pakistan in the next game.
Very dissapointed in Liao Lisheng, expected more from him especially seeing how he lead the team when he made his debut for the senior NT. He's been really poor today with alot of missplaced passes and losing possession easily. In this game he was needed to slow down the pace of the game and lead the team but he hasn't delivered.
FT 3-0 Poor performance by China due to nerves i would say. The team has talent and they played decent when they got into the game, however they were already down 3-0 by that time and also North Korea got tired after playing at such a high pace the entire game. I think it's good that they got this wake-up call right off the bat so that they're on their toes for the upcoming games. A win is a must against Pakistan.
Well they're not a big football nation so I guess we are favourites to win, but with youth teams you never really know. Sometimes a nation finds a really talented crop of players so it's hard to tell until you actually see them play. Anyway I believe that you should never underestimate your opponents regardless of reputation, you should always respect the other teams and give it your best. They are all football players after all and we all know anything can happen in football.
sigh. So pathetic that they lose this bad to North Korea; I thought China's youth actually had hope. I don't understand why Zhang Xizhe, Liu Binbin and Xu Xin weren't brought onto the squad. I can understand they won't to prepare the younger players but this is just destroying their confidence. Basically men against boys out there. Edit: So Shangdong Luneng refused to release six players. I guess that includes Liu Binbin but does anyone know who else? That's just inexplicably selfish. I guess Zhang Xizhe wasn't let go either since he is also important to Guoan. Basically this isn't even China's U-23 "A" team. The senior team should have done them a favor by lending them Wu Lei so they won't get berated so hard by fans at home. Highly doubt any of them realizes this is the "B" team.
Like I said earlier in the thread China brought an U-21 team, who by 2016 will have turned into an U-23 team for the 2016 Rio Olympics. If you've followed China long enough you would know how much China values the Olympic Games. They invested a lot in the 2008 team that played in Beijing Olympic at home turf but went out in the group stages. I remember reading that crop of players had played together and prepared for over 8 years at that time. They failed horribly at the Olympics but they played really well in other youth competitions prior to that. Pretty much all players from that generation are now stars in the CSL and have featured in the NT.
If they have a hard time getting out of a 3 team group in the Asian games, you think they will qualify for the Olympics? Only reason the 2008 olympic team was so heavily invested was because the olympics were in Beijing.
That may be a reason but China has always invested alot in the Olympic Games. North Korea is a strong opponent at youth level, they are always at the top so it was always going to be a tough game. China lost one game and they still have it in their own hands, it's not as disastrous as you make it to be. Qualifying for the Olympics is hard, that's why China is using this tournament as preparation for it.
North Korea beat Pakistan 2-0 today, which means we must win in order to advance from the group. The game against Pakistan is on Monday 11:00 GMT, CCTV-5 will show the game
China just took the lead in the 20th min through Chang Feiya. The game is not televised unfortunately. CCTV5 are showing badminton and swimming