In the International Men's Basketball U19 World Youth Championship, because the historical record of the Chinese team is really not on the table, neither the media nor fans are willing to mention it in the past.

However, in this World Youth Championships, the attention of the domestic media has increased significantly compared with the past, because this year's Chinese U19 has produced two good seedlings, which let them see the hope that the Chinese team will achieve good results in this World Youth Championships.

In this year's youth team, in addition to Xu Yong, the new slam dunk king of the CBA, the media and fans pay the most attention, and Zhang Yu, a young player who has sprung up, has also attracted the attention of fans.

Zhang Yu was born on February 14, 1990 and is the youngest in the current Chinese team. Originally, because he was too young, he was not selected by the U19, until the last moment before the start of the Asian Youth Championship, the substitute scoring guard in the original squad was injured, and Zhang Yu was temporarily transferred to the team to participate in the Asian Youth Championship

In the Asian Youth Championships, from the second game, Zhang Yu defeated Zhang Bo, the original starting scoring guard, and averaged 16.5 points, 6.8 rebounds, and 3.6 assists per game in the entire Asian Youth Championships.

Zhang Yu and NBA star Yao Ming studied at the same junior sports school when they were teenagers. He has outstanding physical condition, well-rounded skills, has just turned 17 years old, and there are already many teams in the CBA who are optimistic about this promising defender, and only because Zhang Yu is too young did not sign with him.

He is 196cm tall barefoot, has an astonishing 208cm reach, weighs 180 pounds, has a vertical take-off height of 90cm, and sprints in 3.35 seconds in the 3/4 half.

The 17-year-old Zhang Yu's physical test is even enough to participate in the NBA draft, and the only drawback is that he is too light, has little strength, and lacks confrontation. But these are not problems at the World Youth Championships, even Xu Yong, who has the best physique in the team, is far inferior to Zhang Yu in other aspects except for his strength because of his age advantage.

After the Asian Youth Championship, Zhang Yu has become the core of this year's youth team second only to Xu Yong, and the coaching staff began to arrange tactics for Zhang Yu separately in order to make the team's offense more diverse. The media also called Zhang Yu and Xu Yong the Asian duo, believing that both of them have the strength to enter the NBA in the future.

Prior to the World Junior Championships, the Chinese team's best record was ninth, and they had never finished in the top eight, which was a humiliating result. This year, with a double core, the Chinese media is generally optimistic that the Chinese team can set the best record in the Zào World Youth Championships and wash away this shameful record.

At the beginning of July, as soon as the national groups came out, the domestic media and industry insiders were mixed, and the Chinese team was divided into a group with the host Serbia and the favorite to win the championship, the United States.

It's a group of death, and only the small African nation of Mali is relatively weak.

The starter in the point guard position of this year's Chinese team was originally Chen Jianghua, who recently suffered a fractured tibia bone in his right ankle and was confirmed to be unable to participate in the World Youth Championships. The Chinese team suddenly had no available person in the point guard position, and it was Yang Kan who replaced Chen Jianghua, whose strength was average, and it was not enough to replace Chen Jianghua.

On July 4, the Chinese team flew to Serbia and began adaptation training on July 5.

In the team training match, Zhang Yu was excited today, and frequently singled Xu Yong on the offensive end.

Xu Yong has strength, but his footsteps can't keep up with Zhang Yu, and he is obviously inferior in speed, and he has been repeatedly broken through by Zhang Yu. On the offensive end, Xu Yong has no back-to-back singles skills, and his offense with the ball is not excellent, so he can't give full play to his strength advantage. Especially under Zhang Yu's 208cm arm span, it is difficult for Xu Yong to get a good shot, and the shooting is a mess!

The training match lasted only 15 minutes, and Li Chunjiang was worried that the two would have a conflict, so he replaced Zhang Yu.

After the baptism of the Asian Youth Championships, Zhang Yu was more confident at this time, not only brilliant on the offensive end, but also terrifying on the defensive end. His long reach and incredible athleticism allow him to defend 1v1 against all players in the number one, two, and three positions in the team. The strength of the table has already surpassed Xu Yong a lot.

Before Zhang Yu entered the youth team, Xu Yong was the core of the team. But except for his height and weight, which is stronger than Zhang Yu, all other aspects have been surpassed by the younger Zhang Yu.

Zhang Yu has excellent ball control ability, sharp breakthrough with the ball, many offensive means, very high ball quotient, and certain organizational ability. His breakaway shots often assist his teammates in scoring, and his shots are accurate, with the ability to shoot beyond the three-point line.

Since Zhang Yu entered the youth team, all the players who followed Zhang Yu's first team in the team training always won the game in the end. In the past few months, the core position of the team has quietly shifted to Zhang Yu unconsciously. Once the game enters a critical juncture, the players more subconsciously pass the ball to Zhang Yu and hand it to the person they think is the most sure.

The reporters outside this Qiē are naturally unclear that the youth team itself is not highly exposed, and Xu Yong, who has been playing CBA for a year, is more well-known in the eyes of the media than Zhang Yu, who is only 17 years old and has not yet entered the professional league.

After the simple adaptation training, the team leader took the team members back to the hotel. When they were divided into rooms yesterday, Zhang Yu and Xu Yong were assigned to the same room to rest, which was specially arranged by the coaching staff, in order to cultivate the relationship between the two.

Although the relationship between the two is not bad, it is not good, after all, the two have begun to secretly compete for the core of the team.

"Xiao Yu, go to bed early, I'm worried about insomnia tonight."

Due to strength reasons, Xu Yong's attitude towards Zhang Yu was quite polite. Zhang Yu has been blowing him up on the court recently, and he was very unhappy at first, but after a long time, he has always been an 18-year-old child, and he is a little worried about Zhang Yu.

What Xu Yong didn't expect was that since the Asian Youth Championships ended, Zhang Yu, who had a black belly, often deliberately created opportunities for himself to play Xu Yong alone during training in order to announce his status in the team to other teammates and coaches. When defending, once there is an opportunity, he will work hard to defend Xu Yong in the No. 3 position, in order to prove that his strength is above Xu Yong.

Xu Yong, who didn't have too much scheming, didn't feel these things on purpose, but the coaches in the team could see it, which is why the coaches have gradually begun to focus on him recently.

"Well, it's better to go to bed early." Zhang Yu looked at the time, it was only 9 o'clock. In fact, he didn't want to go to bed so early, he didn't lose sleep. However, he and Xu Yong didn't have anything to say, and going to bed early could avoid embarrassment.

In the blink of an eye, the time has arrived at 8 p.m. on July 12, 2007, and it is 2 p.m. Beijing time. The Chinese team is about to usher in the first game in half an hour, and it is also the first game of this World Youth Championship, the host Serbia VS China.

The tournament was held at half past two in the afternoon of Chinese time, and it was not difficult to watch the time, and many viewers in China could watch it. Now that the NBA is over, fans are looking forward to the Asian duo touted by the domestic media lately, and it is conservatively estimated that nearly a million Chinese viewers will watch the game.

The coach of the Chinese youth team is Li Chunjiang, and the last youth team was also led by him, with average results and did not enter the quarterfinals. This time, Li Chunjiang has two generals, Zhang Yu and Xu Yong, and he has confidence in his heart, and his goal has been set to the top eight, and he even wants to go further.

In the locker room, Li Chunjiang arranged the starting lineup, point guard Yang Kan, scoring guard Zhang Yu, small forward Xu Yong, power forward Li Xiaoxu, and center Su Wei. There are big loopholes in the Chinese team in terms of control, and several better school-age players in China have not joined the team, because the Olympic Games held in Beijing next year have all gone to train with the senior team, but a few good young insiders participated in this World Youth Championships, which is due to the fact that the Chinese senior team is not short of insiders.

The Chinese team's tactics are mainly to block and dismantle attacks, and use their advantage in the second and third positions to score points. In particular, Zhang Yu in the second position is the offensive point of the Chinese team, and almost all tactics revolve around him.

As for more tactical youth teams, they can't play, the players are too young, the tactical cultivation is limited, and the execution is not enough, and it is best to be able to play simply and effectively.

Defensively, Zhang Yu has made rapid progress in recent months, his sense of co-defense is very strong, and his super physical element can allow him to appear in the weak points of defense in time. Li Chunjiang is confident that with Zhang Yu's excellent defensive ability, the Chinese team's outside defense will be even better.

Xu Yong was very depressed, he didn't lose sleep, but he completely lost its core position. Because Li Chunjiang's tactics are more to let Zhang Yu hold the ball, and Zhang Yu chooses how to attack. The task of the point guard is to dribble the ball over the half court, and then hand the ball to Zhang Yu as soon as possible, and Zhang Yu will handle the ball. Interior players should actively cover for Zhang Yu in the high post, while Xu Yong's task is to intersperse the bottom line and the low post, and wait for Zhang Yu's pass when he has the opportunity.

Some people are happy and some are sad, Zhang Yu is the one who is happy.

Although Zhang Yu has often played the role of the core of the team during training, he has not yet played such an important game, and for a while, his desire to play has become unprecedentedly strong, and he can't wait to prove his strength on the court!