According to a new report by Beijing Youth Daily, the training program of China's men's national soccer team (national football team for short) has been significantly adjusted due to the scheduling of domestic soccer matches. Originally, in order to fully prepare for the next international matches, the coaching staff of the national football team and the Chinese Football Association (CFA) negotiated and planned to start a new period of team training on August 18th. For this reason, the CFA also specially adjusted the schedule of the Chinese Super League (CSL), advancing the 24th round of CSL matches originally scheduled for August 24th and 25th to July 20th to 22nd, aiming to fight for more preparation time for the national football team.
However, with the depth of the domestic AFC Cup, the national football team's training program had to be adjusted again. In the 1/8 finals of this season's AFC Cup, Chinese Super League (CSL) powerhouses such as Shanghai Harbor, Shanghai Shenhua, Shandong Taishan, and Beijing Guoan, which are also the main deliverers of the national team's international footballers, have all managed to advance to the last 8. The competition for the AFC Cup title among these clubs is extremely fierce, as the winner will directly qualify for the main round of the AFC Elite League in the new season. As a result, they will all go all out and arrange for all of their main players, including international players, to participate in the competition.
In the face of this situation, the coaching staff of the national football team and the CFA once again communicated with the decision to fully respect the competitive interests of the club team, and will not be forced to recruit international players into the team during the FIFA Cup tournament. This means that if the national football team in accordance with the original plan to concentrate on August 18, the players who can arrive at the team may be less than 10 people, obviously unable to meet the needs of the team's normal training.
Finally, after careful consideration, the coaching staff of the national football team decided to postpone the new training time to the end of the quarter-finals of the AFC Cup, that is, the earliest will not start until August 23rd. This decision not only ensures that the national football team can have enough international players to participate in the training, but also takes into account the interests of the club's game.
For the international players who do not participate in the AFC Cup matches, they can get proper rest and recovery during this period to be more fully prepared for the next national team training and matches.
According to the latest plan, the national football team will leave Dalian on September 2 and travel to Tokyo, Japan to prepare for the September 5 match against Japan. This means that before the trip, the national football team will still be able to conduct about 10 outdoor training sessions in Dalian to ensure that the team will be in the best shape for this important international match. The whole process of training and preparing for the match shows the seriousness of the national soccer team and their desire to win every match.
