Ma Dexing: Japan and South Korea respectively sent Qingshui to encourage U18 and Incheon United U18 to participate in the competition

Hupu, August 24th, this week, the 33rd China-Japan-Korea Youth Games kicked off in Baotou, Inner Mongolia. In this event, in addition to the Chinese U18 and the host Baotou team, Japan and South Korea also sent teams to participate. Reporter Ma Dexing posted a message to introduce two participating teams from overseas.

This year, the U18 team of Incheon United Club in South Korea, namely the Dajian High School Football Team. (Note: The youth echelons of Korean clubs are directly placed in high schools or junior high schools in local schools.) The team represents South Korea as the champion of the "2024 79th National High School Soccer League King of Kings Football Championship (2024). South Korea organizes this event every August, and a total of 64 club teams, pure school teams or folk clubs from all over the country participate in this traditional event, which is held in a centralized tournament system. The Dajian High School team won the championship in this event for the first time in history.

In the first half of this year, the U18 team of Incheon United Club performed averagely. (Note: The U18 echelon of Korean professional clubs also participates in the high school league, but the echelons of all professional clubs (25 teams in total) are concentrated into three groups A, B and C. The echelons only compete with each other, which is called the "KLeagueJunior".)

"KLeagueJunior" first held the first phase of the regular season (single round-robin competition) in the first half of the year, ranking the three groups according to their points. After the game, 13 teams in Group A and Group B (each of 8 teams) and 13 teams in Group C (9 teams) will be assigned to the upper group (Group A, that is, the championship group); the remaining 12 teams will be assigned to the lower group (Group B). Then, the two groups each started the second stage of the playoffs (but round-robin).

Incheon United Club U18 echelon, the Dajian High School team, was assigned to Group B in the first phase of the regular season in the first half of this year, barely ranked fourth, and won the second phase of the playoffs championship group. After the second phase of the competition began, before coming to China to participate in the competition, the U18 team of Incheon United Club (Dajian High School) temporarily ranked second in the standings, with current record of 4 games, 2 wins, 1 draw, 1 loss, and 7 points.

However, in the "K League Club U18 Youth Championship (2025GROUND.NK League Youth (Under18) Championship)" in July this year, Incheon United won the runner-up and lost to the Daegu Youth Team 0-4 in the final of the final. This event is limited to the U18 echelon of Korean professional clubs, and adopts a centralized competition system.

Unlike Japan who sent pure school teams in the previous two years, Japan appointed the U18 echelon encouraged by the J1 League club Shimizu. Compared with the past, this time it also reflects that Japan attaches greater importance to it than before.

It is reported that the participation of Shimizu encourages the U18 echelon in this competition is currently ranked first in the U18 Princes League and Donghai District, the Gaoyuangong Cup hosted by the Japanese Football Association. The Gaoyuangong Cup is the highest-level league in this age group hosted by the Japanese Football Association. It is divided into three levels: "Super League", "Prince League" and "Regional League". Teams from Japanese professional clubs, schools, and civil society clubs can register for the competition. Among them, the "Super League" is divided into two regions, the East and the West, with 12 teams participating in the competition, and they are played in the home and away system. The teams ranked first in the two regions compete for the annual championship, while the two teams ranked lower will be relegated to participate in the "Prince League" next year.

"Prince League" is divided into nine districts, each district has at least 10 teams participating, and it is also played in the home and away system. The U18 team of Qingshui Aid Club, who came to China to participate in this competition, participated in the Donghai Region. Currently, it has obvious advantages in the first nine rounds of the first stage, with 8 wins and 1 draw and 25 points, leading the second place by as many as 8 points. The second round of competition is scheduled to resume on September 6, so this time I came to China to participate in the China-Japan-South Korea exchange conference is also a good opportunity for him to train before participating in the second round of competition.

It should be noted that the champions in the nine districts of the "Prince League" will be eligible for the playoffs to compete for advancement to the "Prince League" next year. With the strength and performance of the Qingshui Agitating Team, there is a good opportunity to strive for upgrade this year. As for the "regional league" that goes further, it is a competition of this age group organized by 47 prefectures and counties, and it will not be launched in detail.

Although compared with the echelon of the Kiyomizu Agitation Club, there are not many Japanese youth internationals trained and are far from being as successful as professional clubs such as Tokyo FC, Osaka Gamba, and Osaka Sakura, the overall level should be better than the previous Japanese pure school team. Therefore, you should have a certain combat effectiveness. On August 26, the National Youth Team's first match against this opponent may not be so easy.

Schedule of this event: