Rarlier this week some of the world's brightest young footballers were in the Swiss city to take part in the Blue Stars FIFA youth cup. China's Guangzhou Evergrande were among the teams taking part. Despite not winning a match, coach Marco Pezzaiuoli believes his side are on the right track to improving. Dan Williams sat down with the man responsible for developing the talent at Guangzhou.
Q: It perhaps has not been quite the tournament that you had hoped for but what are the key lessons that you have learned here.
A: "The main thing is the experience that you get and to do our technique things. We will now train every week in China at a higher level. And I think there are most things that we can learn, the experience, to use everything that we learn in China at a higher level. Now they know how to do and we need to train also at a higher intensity," Marco Pezzaiuoli said.
Q: The team appeared to start slowly but the performances picked up as the tournament went on. Does that give you heart going forward?
CCTV talks to Evergrande Youth Coach.
A: "Of course, they are going in the right direction as they have the right mentality to learn. They want to learn, they are listening, they tried their best. I think this is a key point. THe bad thing is that we go home on Monday and we need to stay longer. That is why the club decide with me, we can stay longer. Maybe in the August or September and October to stay two or three months and every week play these kind of games."
Q: How can this experience act as an incentive to improve?
A: Last year we lost higher. We played Barcelona, Real Madrid, PSG, Manchester - really the big teams. We lost really high - 5,6-0. But then at the end of the year we had a tournament in China. We had the championship. The final round of the 16 teams. And we win every game. I think the key point is that we were in Europe to have this kind of experience. Stress, less time, higher speed without ball, passing, the details. How to pass also with less time. In China we have more time, maybe one or two seconds. Here we have maybe one second on the ball. It is why it is the main thing. THey know every tactical things. The right thing is to do it in the right moment. That's why we need this competition against the best teams.
A: Obviously, the Guangzhou academy is known as being one of the biggest football schools in the world. What are the key philosophies that you are trying to implement there?
A: Evergrande is a very young team, young company, the philosophy is young. The first team is a team trying to win everything. One of the best teams in China. And we are playing very high. That is key and our main philosophy. We want to press high. We want to control the ball and control the game. We want to give all our young players this philosophy.
Q: Do you feel that China football is now on the right track.
A: Yes of course, they have two or three different kinds of points. You have the first league where they spend a lot of money on the best players in the world. This is a good part. They don't allow 15 or 20 foreign players. They are only allowed a maximum of five including one Asian foreign player. The children have very good eyes to see, I want to be like Martinez etc. This is a good merchandizing for the young children. I want to train like him, the movement like him. This is a good part. Developing the base. The second part is that we have the President of China and he wants to bring it to the elementary schools and that is very good. Every school in China starting to play football. The other part, a lot of foreign people are coming to develop the sport and that is a key point for the future as I may be there for 2,3 or 4 years but in ten years maybe other foreign coaches are coming but for the future, China needs to work with the China coaches and that is the main key to develop coaches also the base gets better.
