On September 11, the Italian national team arrived in the northwestern Peruvian city of Chiclayo, where they will play their group stage match. Before that, they had five days to prepare.

Italy are in Group C at the World Junior Championships, where they face the United States, North Korea and Ivory Coast.

A total of 16 teams participated in the final stage of the World Junior Championships, namely Peru, Costa Rica, Ghana and China, the hosts of Group A; Group B: Turkey, Mexico, Australia, Uruguay; Group C: Italy, United States, North Korea, Côte d'Ivoire; and Brazil, Netherlands, Gambier, Qatar in Group D.

Even teams like Gambier can participate in the final stage of the World Junior Championships, which shows that there are many differences between the World Junior World Championships and the Senior World Cup, at least for these football-loving teenagers, their national team's ranking in the world will not affect their qualification for the World Junior Championships.

It is worth mentioning that this World Junior Championship is the last glory of Chinese teenagers in world football, although they lost 1:5 to Turkey in the top 8, but still created the best result of the Chinese team since participating in the World Junior Championship - seventh place.

But since then, even the national junior team has fallen with the national football team, and in the 07 World Junior Championships in South Korea, the Chinese team walked on the way to compete for admission tickets as the champion of the Asian Championships; In the 09 Nisli World Junior Championships, the Chinese team was on the road to compete for the qualification of the Asian Junior Championship; In the 11th Mexico World Junior Championships, the Chinese team was on the way; 13 Arab World Junior Championships? We don't know, really, the news about the national junior team in the 13th World Junior Championship is just a glimpse, and we don't even know when they will be eliminated.

Could it be that we are paying less attention to the national junior team?

Or is it really because the heart is dead?

Mr. Liang Qichao once said: "Youth is the future of China!" "It's a pity that in Chinese football, our future is out of sight.

Every year is shouting to impact the international arena, every year is desperately tossing, every time the army is defeated, shouting attention to youth football, every newspaper is saying that mass sports is the foundation of Chinese football, but what is the truth?

Taking Yucheng as an example, there are as many as 30 professional football fields that can be named, but each venue will be charged; And those primary and secondary schools and even college football fields, ordinary people are not allowed to enter. Those young people in Yucheng who like to play football can only play football on the basketball courts in some communities and even on the abandoned fields of factories, shouting mass sports for 20 years, but a municipality directly under the central government does not even have a free grass football field, what kind of mass sports is this?

Is it called mass sports to put a few kinds of fitness equipment in the community and build a few basketball hoops in the open space?

Net!

No wonder the whole world knows that this country values form over substance, and no wonder they have never been afraid of the islands, because they know very well that everything in this country will only be implemented on slogans!

Okay, now that we're done, let's go back to our '05 World Junior Championship in Peru.

Italy finished third at the UEFA Euro '05 Under-17 Junior Championships, so they are also favourites to qualify for Group C, behind the United States, who had a better result at the World Junior Championships, and are in Pot C.

Their first match will begin on 17 September against the Ivorian national team.

It was also the first match in Group C.

When it comes to the "elephant" Ivory Coast, the first thing that fans think of must be Mr. "African Andy Lau", and then the Toure brothers, but with the status of these three masters, it is obviously impossible for them to participate in a game like the World Junior Championships.

So in this Ivory Coast national junior team, the most eye-catching is their number one star, striker Diomande.

This young player born in Saint-Etienne plays the position of right midfielder in the club, but his attack is very strong, and his scoring ability is not trivial, so in the Ivory Coast national junior team, he generally plays the position of striker, and the entire corridor on the right side is his turf.

What's even more amazing is that this player is only 13 years old this year, but he is already 1.71 meters and weighs 75 kilograms, which can be called as strong as an ox.

Even Descartes was very envious of his physical fitness, compared to the skinny Descartes, this "black and hard" was almost like a small tank.

I don't know why, as soon as I saw him Descartes, I remembered Balotelli who was far away in Inter Milan, but I don't know if this guy who is as strong as Balotelli is also as "two" as Balotelli?

In addition to Ivory Coast's Diomande, Italy's other two opponents also have several outstanding young players to watch.

North Korea has always been known for its closed-mindedness, but with the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, it was suddenly realized that this stubborn little country has never been derailed from the world in football, and that they are even higher than their neighbors, who have always regarded themselves as a great power.

But in fact, at the 05 World Junior Championships, the North Korean team gave the world a surprise, they have Choi Myung-ho, known as the "Ronaldo of North Korea", and Park Choi-min, the silver boot winner of the Asian Junior Championships.

The strongest opponent in this group, the United States, has Zimmerman, Soroka and other good players in the major leagues in the future, and the United States team has performed very well in the World Junior Championships over the years, and qualifying from the group is no longer their goal.

In addition to these opponents in the group stage, there are also some young players who have made a name for themselves in world football, such as Brazil's Anderson and Marcelo; Bella, Dos, Mexico. Santos; Sapong, Netherlands.

These players are considered to be some of the best in their age group and will have a future at some of Europe's top clubs.

On the other hand, although Descartes was hyped up in Italy, his reputation in international football was not great.

Because the giants of other countries may pay attention to the youth players of the major Italian football clubs, but a small club like Pavia usually does not have any foreign scouts to pay attention to them.

Therefore, Descartes, who has always lived in the small city of Pavia, has a reputation in international football that is not even as good as some young players in the Milan Academy.

Especially due to his illness, no one can guarantee that he will definitely appear in professional football, so although every year there are clubs who propose a transfer to Pavia, few teams will do anything to do so, a player who is uncertain about the future, and no one wants to spend too much attention on him.

This is also an important reason why Pavia has still been able to keep Descartes - the great powers were interested in Descartes, but they did not have strong intentions, they acted as if they were buying a fragile luxury, and they thought about it in their hearts, but they were always worried about their actions.

With the Italian junior squad moving into the competition village, the intense pre-match preparations have also reached their peak, and the Italian opponents are eyeing the tiger, and the national junior team has no clear confidence in their future.

Early the next morning after arriving in Peru, Mr. Roca hurriedly pulled the young players of the national junior team onto the court for adaptation training.

Since the lineup with Descartes as the core has not been satisfactory, Mr. Roca has been shaken by his new lineup, although he continues to keep Descartes on the side of the main lineup, but no longer insists that the young players must pass the ball to Descartes to organize.

He began to realize that Descartes did have a good handle of the ball, but he didn't seem to be a player like Xavi or Zinedine Zidane, and he always had a sense of urgency when dealing with football, and his teammates often couldn't keep up with his train of thought.

As a result, when Italy is led by Descartes, it will always look like a wild horse that has escaped the reins, which can be released but cannot be retracted, and often makes too many mistakes.

Mr. Rocca has not yet realized that he has put Descartes in the wrong place, and he stubbornly believes that there is only one reason for this result, and that is the problem of chemistry between Descartes and his teammates.

So in the remaining days of training, Mr. Roca repeatedly emphasized the positioning and coordination between Descartes and his teammates, and he wanted to get them familiar with each other as soon as possible in the limited time he had, so as to minimize mistakes in the game.

In such a tense atmosphere of preparation, time passed quickly.

At 2:15 local time on the afternoon of September 17, Italy's first match at the World Junior Championships came as scheduled in the spotlight.

In the previous group stage of Group A.B, the host Peru and China drew 1:1 with Ghana and Costa Rica respectively, and all four teams in Group A drew with each other. Uruguay lost 0:2 to Mexico and Turkey beat Australia 1:0, and the strength of the teams in Group B has begun to appear.

Now it's the turn of Italy, the third-place finisher at the '05 European Junior Championships.

The Italian lineup for this game is goalkeeper Parin, and the back four from left to right are Bivio, Silvestri, Angelucci, Cremonesi, midfielders Mandolini, Greco, Descartes, and forwards Tiboni, Foti, and Russoto.

Another of the main midfielders, Palermo, was replaced by Mandolini due to poor form.

They are still playing in the same 433 formation.

We won't repeat the names of the Ivory Coast's line-up, but it's worth noting that their number one star Diomande has appeared in the striker position, and he is partnered with No.9 Qusay.

Both strikers are physical, individual players who will put a lot of pressure on the Italian backline.

The formation of Côte d'Ivoire is the traditional 442.

Descartes stood on the football field of the Chiclayo Sports Center, looking at the crowd around him who were constantly cheering, and his heart rippled.

More than 20,000 fans watched the game, although it was only a U17 level youth game, but this did not reduce the enthusiasm of the fans. Then these fans can also brag to their fellow mates for a while: See, I watched him play at the World Junior Championships in xx years, and I thought he had a great future at that time.

Being able to see the performances of future stars is also something that fans will talk about.

But this was the first time for Descartes.

Yes, although Descartes has long been famous, with the strength of Pavia Football Club and the size of the small town of Pavia, their municipal stadium can accommodate up to three or four thousand spectators, and it has not been able to sit for a long time.

The grandest scene Descartes could ever see was a youth league match in Turin against the Torino team, and the red Torino fans almost overturned the stadium, although they numbered just over 10,000 people, but their enthusiasm was worthy of the title of "Red Bull".

Even when playing against Juventus' youth team, there were not so many fans in the stadium.

This is the fact, in Italy, although Juventus claims to have 10 million fans, they can't even sit at 40,000 people at their home stadium, because in Turin, this is the turf of the Torino team, and more than two-thirds of the population of the city are fans of the "red bull".

I only saw Descartes, who had seen the scale of 10,000 people, suddenly saw such a scene of 20,000 or 30,000 people gathered together, and of course I was a little shocked in my heart.

However, he took this shock as a kind of motivation, and he secretly clenched his fists: Descartes, your pace of conquering the world begins today!