On International Match Day in September, reporter Chill reported that China's opponents are Malaysia and Syria, both of which have a large number of naturalized players.
Malaysia: Coach says no "busking"
The Malaysian coach is the South Korean Kim Judge Gon, and an old acquaintance of Chinese soccer. This time, he has assembled 26 players, half of whom are naturalized, seven of whom are Chinese. There are also blood naturalized players from Australia, England and Sweden, and three non-blood naturalized players from South America, who are significantly stronger than before.
Last year, the Malaysian Football Federation hired Kim Jiek Kun, who had coached twice in Hong Kong, China. He lost only 4 out of 23 matches. Not only did he make it to the final round of the Asian Cup again after 16 years, he also relied on non-starters and naturalized players to make it to the quarterfinals of the Southeast Asian Cup against the backdrop of Johor DT's refusal to release them.
Last year, Malaysia drew with Thailand and Tajik in the King's Cup and lost the final on penalties to Tajik; earlier this year, Thailand won by a narrow 1-goal margin in the first round of the Southeast Asia Cup semifinals. From March, we warmed up with 4 straight wins, beating Turkmenistan and Hong Kong, China.
On August 29, Malaysia began training. Jin Jiekun said that he will not "set up a bus", hope to play attacking soccer to win. Stronger naturalization will play an important role at that time. Jin Jiekun emphasized that if the away win, help the team to seek a breakthrough in the Asian Cup. However, in the first training session on the 29th, two players withdrew due to injuries, goalkeeper Lin Kai was replaced by Ghani, but Kim did not call Wen Shaokang's replacement.
Syria: Cooper tweaks victory list
The Syrian coach is the famous Argentinean coach Cooper. He is taking this warm-up match very seriously.On matchdays in March and June, Syria suffered disappointing 0-1 defeats against Bahrain and Vietnam. This time, Cooper dropped five international players from his June roster, including naturalized midfielder Ash, who joined Seoul at the beginning of the year and has played for Sweden. Nagar, a naturalized Australian-born striker, has been unable to find a new employer after being released from his contract with McArthur of the Australian Super League. Habouni, a Canadian-born mixed-race center back who participated in the Canadian national team camp and chose to represent Syria last September. However, he is currently in the lower German league with Magwogar-Wogar-Magde-Orr-Bar-Klaten's second team.
Ten of Syria's 24-man roster play in the domestic league, but with the postponement of Syria's new season from Aug. 25 to Sept. 22, the form of domestic players is hard to guarantee and they have to rely more on overseas players. Among the overseas players, naturalized right back Weiss is the only European player in the Greek second league. Almost all of the remaining 13 overseas players play in West Asia, including Kuwait, Jordan, Bahrain, Iraq, Lebanon, UAE and Qatar. The real powerhouses are veteran midfielder Mawas and veteran striker Soma, who just moved to Qatar Arabia and joined Dubai Youth last season.
Soma, who plays in the UAE, and Armenian striker Madikian are both in good form. Soma scored 27 goals in 27 games last season on loan at Qatar's Arabians and has officially moved on this season, while Madikian played solidly last season with seven goals in 12 games. In addition, Ousmane, a midfielder who was selected for the Dutch U16 national junior team after growing up in Holland, has also been in good form since joining the Thai Premier League's Southpenn Warriors last year.
