After the 2026 World Cup qualifying group draw results were announced, China's preparations for the World Qualifying Tournament also officially entered the schedule of the Football Association.
The grouping of the preliminaries is not looking good for the national soccer team. The South Korean team in the same group has always been the nemesis of the Chinese team. For many years, the national soccer team's "Korea phobia" has not been fundamentally "cured". In recent years, Thai soccer has risen rapidly, and is no longer a Southeast Asian team that China can control at will.
For China, if you want to advance in the preliminaries group, you have to try to score in South Korea, die in Thailand, try to beat your opponents at home, and not lose on the road at least. Only then can you guarantee success in advancing to second in the group.
As the preliminaries will start in November this year, the national football team has very limited time to prepare for the match. Therefore, the FA also decided to arrange three warm-up matches for the national football team on international match days in September and October. This time, the FA is still very efficient. The three warm-up opponents of the national football team have been finalized, which are three Asian teams, namely Syria, Uzbekistan and Malaysia.
It can be said that this time the national football team to choose the opponent of the warm-up match is still very targeted. Malaysia is weak and can be considered the weakest opponent of the Chinese football team in the group stage. Uzbekistan's style is very tough. Their players are generally physically strong and have outstanding confrontation ability, somewhat similar to South Korea. Syrian players are skilled in individual skills and cooperation, which can be used as a reference for Thailand.
In order to fully prepare for the World Qualifiers, the national soccer team will definitely pay great attention to these three opponents in the warm-up matches. I'm sure head coach Jankovic will send out the strongest squad of the national soccer team. Considering that many of the star players who represented the national soccer team in the World Qualifiers last year are too old. In addition, Zhang Yuning is out for the season with a serious injury, and Wei Shihao was severely punished by the FA for verbally abusing the referee. Wu Xinghan did not play for more than half a year because of the "junior incident", and Jin Jingdao was arrested for gambling. They will definitely miss the national soccer team's matches this year.
As a result, the player lineup of the national soccer team will definitely change a lot this time. While keeping the main framework of the national team, head coach Jankovic will activate a lot of newcomers, and players who have recently performed outstandingly in the Chinese Super League may be called up to the national team. For example, Jiang Shenglong and Ma Zhen of Shenhua, Xie Weijun of Tianjin Jinmen Tigers and Li Yuanyi of Shandong Taishan.
In addition, in order to increase the team's fighting strength, Jankovic needs to reuse naturalized players from the national soccer team. Ackerson and Jiang Guangtai have been absolute mainstays for Chengdu Rongcheng and Shanghai Port this season. Fernando has been in explosive form for Taishan lately. As the team's substitute, he has made it to two league matches and gotten an assist.
Similar to Fernando is Guoan's naturalized player Li Ke. After the new coach Soares took over, Li Ke was reused by the Portuguese coach and returned to the team's starting lineup.
The four naturalized players mentioned above are in pretty good shape this season. Jankovic can let them participate in the warm-up matches of the national soccer team and check the form of these four naturalized players through three matches to decide whether to bring them to this year's preseason or not. The other two naturalized players, Luo Guofu and Alan, are not so lucky, as they haven't played in the Chinese Super League for a long time and they are in Brazil, so it is unlikely that Jankovic will risk using them.
In November, the national soccer team will play two world qualifying matches. They will challenge Thailand on the road and return home to face South Korea five days later. These two games will be crucial to China's ability to get out of the group. Once they play poorly, it could very well lead to an outright collapse...
