Just as the Chinese women's soccer team is about to leave for the World Cup, the latest news about the Chinese men's soccer team's participation in the world qualifiers has also come out. The official news from the AFC said that the competition process and draw time for the 2026 World Cup qualifiers and the 2027 Asian Cup qualifiers have been finalized. China's national soccer team's classification has been determined, will be in the second class, in order to successfully qualify for the 18 strong match, they also need to draw a better signing.
The draws for the first and second rounds of the Asian qualifiers will be held at AFC headquarters on July 27, when 45 member associations embark on their journey to the 23rd FIFA World Cup.
Due to the expansion of the 2026 World Cup to 48 teams, the number of places in Asia has increased to 8.5. The AFC had to adjust past matches and categorize each team based on the latest rankings released by FIFA on July 20th.
For the national soccer team, there are no international matches in July, so the Asian ranking is locked at 11th place. It is not required to participate in the first stage of qualifying but goes straight to the second stage, the top 36. The AFC scheduled home-and-away matches from November 2023 to June 2024. the top two teams in Group 9 made it into the top 18 and locked in a berth in the 2027 Asian Cup.
The national soccer team continues to be ranked 11th in the latest Asian rankings, locking up second place. Teams in the same bracket include Uzbekistan, Jordan, Bahrain, Syria, Vietnam, Palestine, Kyrgyzstan and Lebanon. Because teams in the same bracket avoided them, they will not meet in the group draw.
The national soccer team will participate in the group draw for the second phase, so they will have to meet many strong teams in the first phase, including Japan, Iran, South Korea, Australia, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, as well as second-tier Asian teams such as Iraq, UAE and Oman. Therefore, they want to sign a better position. They want UAE and Oman to be the best in the first phase and Iraq should be avoided as much as possible, not to mention Japan and South Korea.
In addition, the teams that finish third and fourth are very important in terms of the success of the national soccer team in advancing to the top 36. The weaker the opponents, the better. For example, India, Philippines and Nepal in the third slot, Maldives, Bhutan, Laos and other possible teams in the fourth slot would be the best grouping scenario for the national soccer team.
Prior to the Asian Cup draw, the national soccer team did draw the first and weakest Qatar, the third Lebanon and the fourth Tajikistan, all weak opponents.
The reason the national soccer team chose to play a warm-up match against a weaker team such as Myanmar, rather than Argentina, was to secure a win and avoid slipping down the Asian rankings as a result of unnecessary point deductions, which in turn could affect the classification for the World Qualifiers or the Asian Cup.
