After nine years, the People’s Daily and the AFC voiced their gratitude to Sun Jihai for his contribution.
The rise of football in China must be inseparable from the grassroots workers who are quietly behind the scenes. Only when everyone can calm down and start from the most basic, can our football in China slowly usher in the dawn and the football environment in China will get better and better!
In the final round of the U20 Asian Cup, the men’s soccer team in China didn’t win, so it was impossible to ensure the qualifying. Fortunately, the Japanese men’s soccer team in the same group defeated the Saudi men’s soccer team, which helped the men’s soccer team in China a lot. In the end, they won the second place in the group with 4 points in 3 games and successfully advanced.
In this match, China struggled to draw Kyrgyzstan at the bottom of the group 1-1, while Japan beat Saudi Arabia 2-0, so that China and Japan joined hands to qualify.
According to statistics, this is the second time that China men’s soccer team has advanced to the knockout stage of the Asian Youth Championship after a lapse of nine years. The People’s Daily sent a message to congratulate China on its qualification.
The People’s Daily described the performance of China Men’s Football Team as "outstanding", and also congratulated China on its promotion to the quarterfinals of U20 Men’s Football Asian Cup late at night.
In addition, AFC official website also published a report on the match for the first time, praising the performance of the China men’s soccer team and pushing the defending champion Saudi Arabia to qualify. At the same time, he did not forget to mention the goalkeeper Li Hao, and made a beautiful save at the last moment to ensure the promotion of China.
Before the game, many people were worried that National Youth would lose the game. After all, the opponent was a desperate Kyrgyzstan, but the result was beyond everyone’s expectation. Although the team was in a passive situation on the scene, it was able to stubbornly hold the draw. I have to say, this team has shown good strength and temperament. And the AFC official is a rare document, praising the performance of the China team.
The rise of so many Xinjiang players in the U20 age group is, of course, inseparable from the efforts of Sun Jihai, a famous national football player. After retiring, he has always been concerned with the development of domestic football, especially youth football.
China football can finally hold its head high and enter the knockout stage of the U20 Asian Cup. As one of the most familiar players of China fans, veteran Sun Jihai also expressed his blessing to the national football team for the first time: "I hope our boys will continue to work hard and come on!" . Sun Jihai is the best player in China’s football history. He once played for Crystal Palace, Manchester City and other giants. After retiring, he chose to become a coach, and now he is the vice chairman of Xinjiang Football Association!
As the vice chairman of Xinjiang Football Association, Sun Jihai is actively promoting the development of local campus sports while helping Xinjiang cultivate talents. Last year, he led his team to Urumqi Middle School. Here they not only gave the students professional training guidance, but also brought them some advanced sports equipment.
In addition, they also set up a stadium and an indoor sports hall in the school, which greatly enriched the children’s after-school life. Here, Sun Jihai gave the students a wonderful skill demonstration class. In this class, he introduced some basic skills and how to use his body correctly.
In addition, he also explained to you some tactical cooperation in the game and some simple tactical play. The arrival of Sun Jihai also made the students here more interested in this sport.
It is precisely because of Sun Jihai’s tireless efforts in youth training that we have seen this powerful youth team in China. In this U20 Asian Cup, their overall performance is also excellent.
Although they met some difficulties in the group stage, they finally qualified with 4 points. In the 8-in-4 competition, facing the Korean youth team, I hope our boys can make persistent efforts, achieve better results and work hard!
Finally, I would like to thank Sun Jihai, who has trained so many outstanding young people in Xinjiang, so we can see more hope. He deserves to be the man behind the youth football in China!