BEIJING, Oct. 20 (Xinhua) -- The 2026 FIFA World Cup World Cup qualifiers are just around the corner, but the national soccer team is finding it hard to win warm-up matches ahead of the tournament. Even on Song Kai's first day in office, the Jankovic-led national soccer team was turned around by the Uzbekistan men's soccer team, which is something that FA leader Song Kai and the members of the new leadership team could not face. Because the Uzbekistan men's soccer team is also a second-rate team in Asia, they have almost the same world ranking as the Chinese men's soccer team, but the performance of the two teams is completely different, and our team can only defend and counterattack, very passive, 3-23 shooting comparison, but also can visually reflect the difference in the power level of the two teams.
Even the Uzbekistan men's soccer coach confessed after the match that the Chinese men's soccer team didn't pose a threat to us at all and felt that the Chinese men's soccer team and the Vietnamese men's soccer team were teams of the same level.
It is understood that the State General Administration of Sports has given a clear task to Song Kai that Chinese men's and women's soccer should achieve the set goals, Chinese women's soccer should play well in the Paris Olympics qualifiers, Chinese men's soccer should play well in the world qualifiers, and China's men's soccer must work hard to enter the 2026 World Cup.
Now, the Chinese men's soccer team has fans even more worried. The Yankovic-led national soccer team has selected 44 international players in past training sessions, but the overall performance of these players in warm-up matches has not been good enough to be described as average.
Yankovic's selection and tactical ability has been questioned, and even the Korean media have suggested that Yankovic is a third-rate coach who doesn't have much ability, and that China's men's soccer world qualifying trip will be very difficult. Therefore, Korean media revealed that South Korea's Cui Kangxi is expected to become the new head coach of the Chinese men's soccer team.
The FA is also very optimistic about him. First of all, Choi Kang-hee is a famous coach in the Chinese Super League. He is also familiar with Asian soccer and can work with the FA. The reason we didn't take over the national soccer team is because we didn't talk about wages and other issues. The State General Administration of Sports clearly stipulates that the three major soccer coaches must be full-time and cannot work part-time as club coaches. Therefore, Cui Kangxi's offer is very high and the FA must seriously consider it.
After Song Kai became the leader of the soccer association, he quickly interviewed Serbian Jankovic. Considering that the World Qualifiers will start in November, and the latest official statement from the AFC, the Chinese men's soccer team's away match against the Thai men's soccer team in the 36th round of the World Qualifiers starts at 20:30 on November 16th. So, it is an irrational decision to change the coach now. Therefore, Jankovic still has a chance to lead the team against Thailand Men's Football Team, but the result of this match will decide whether Jankovic can continue to lead the team or not.
Song Kai also has a special committee responsible for Gao Hongbo in order to ensure the performance of the national soccer team. Gao Hongbo, who left his management position at the Football Association, now assumes his new position under the auspices of Song Kai and officially becomes the Technical Director of the Football Association. He will be fully responsible for the training of national-level ladder teams and coach training. Some media outlets even pointed out that the Football Association immediately fired Jankovic once the national soccer team performed poorly in their first game of the World Qualifiers. At that time, the Football Association tried to invite Cui Kangxi to take over, and if not, the Football Association might consider letting Gao Hongbo enter the Palace three times to lead the team.
Gao Hongbo is very familiar with the national soccer team. When he coached the national football team twice, he led the team to play 38 matches with a total of 23 wins, 11 draws and 4 losses, a win rate of 60%. Moreover, the national soccer team climbed all the way from 108th to 69th in the world, which is a reflection of Gao Hongbo's ability. However, Cai Zhenhua's golden dollar soccer hired world famous coaches, which led to Gao Hongbo's dismissal.
Famous soccer player Fan Zhiyi also regretted the hasty dismissal of Gao Hongbo and insisted that Xiao Gao led the team well. Fan also recently talked about the soccer association, he personally hope that the soccer association or let really engaged in the management of the soccer industry, the past decades of soccer association one after another, but none from the field of soccer, Chinese soccer than Japan and South Korea lag behind, which shows that we should first understand the concept of soccer, do not change the soup.
Japanese men's soccer coaches can also beat European powerhouses in warm-up matches, so let's hope that Songkai will make a timely change and not have the luxury of wasting money on national soccer coaches, and inviting experienced and really familiar Japanese, Korean or local coaches to learn about Asian soccer would be a good way forward in my opinion.
