China's U-19 enjoys Dutch football experience

AMSTERDAM, the Netherlands - The Chinese under-19 team completed a training trip in the Netherlands on Sunday with a fifth place in the prestigious Copa Amsterdam U-19 tournament in the Dutch Olympic stadium.

"We have learned a lot," said head coach Jan Olde Riekerink. His player Zheng Dalun shared the opinion of his coach. "We came to Holland to learn and we did," said he.  

The Chinese team is in preparation for the AFC U-19 championship in the United Arab Emirates in November, where they need to qualify for the 2013 FIFA U-20 World Cup in Turkey. The ultimate goal is participation in the 2016 Olympic Games.

To reach these goals Dutch head coach Jan Olde Riekerink, who is in charge since August 2011, wants his team to play as many matches as possible against top class opponents. The Chinese arrived in the Netherlands on May 14 and competed in three tournaments, the Terborg-tournament (8th place), the ICGT- tournament (5th place) and finally the Copa tournament.

After losing the first two matches in Amsterdam against Brazilian sides Botafogo (0-3) and Cruzeiro (0-1) China U-19 won its last group match against Dutch club AZ Alkmaar 2-1 on Saturday.

After defensive mistakes by AZ, Xie Pengfei scored the first goal and Wu Yizhen became match winner after another error in Dutch defense.

China saved the best for last by crushing Turkish side Besiktas 3-0 in the battle for 5th place on Sunday. Lin Chuangyi, Zheng Dalun and Luo Jing produced the goals in a blistering performance by the Chinese.

"This was one of our best performances in the past weeks," Olde Riekerink reacted.

Cruzeiro won the tournament by beating fellow Brazilians Botafogo in the final, Ajax Amsterdam finished third, Ajax Cape Town fourth, while China was best of the rest.  

According to Olde Riekerink, former head of the youth academy of Ajax, the Chinese team learned several lessons. "My players have seen what the bottlenecks are in competitions at the European level, where all teams are well organized, have an organized way of playing and the resistance is much higher than in competitions in China. Furthermore, they also experienced the Brazilian level. This is the only way to be able to develop themselves," the coach declared.

"We learned that we have very good players," Olde Riekerink added. "But that it is very easy to be a good player when you have enough space. When you also want to be e good player with little space you have to think faster, act faster, that's what counts. You only learn this by playing under higher resistance. We made progression but we are not there yet. We need more of these moments."

"The individual talent is available," continued the 49-year-old coach. "China has everything, from tall to small players, from fast to smart players. All species are present. What is sometimes missing is the real winning mentality. But they are wonderful children. We just need to get them ready for the top."

One of these players is Zheng Dalun, who scored the second goal in the final match against Besiktas. The attacking midfielder enjoyed the experiences in Holland.

"We could have done better if we were more familiar to the tempo of the game," Zheng Dalun said. "I think we are better than we performed. We learned a lot from the European tempo. It was very tough, a struggle."

Zheng Dalun and his teammates also enjoyed the lessons by his Dutch coach. "Our coach is very open and has good coaching skills, " he added. "It's nice to learn from the Dutch football culture and the feeling, the technique."

Dutch international Wesley Sneijder is Zheng Dalun's favorite player. "I like his control of the ball," he said. "Also he is a short guy, not so tall, just like me, we have something in common. He is my favorite type of player. I am not exactly the same type, but I like to learn from his and be as successful as him."

With the AFC U-19 championship coming up and the 2016 Olympic Games as ultimate goal Zheng Dalun takes the goals step by step. " We prepare game by game, follow our Dutch coach and finally reach our final goal."